Adventures of the Clavats and Selkies and Stuff
by ruhler
Summary: Join the four travelers on their journey for myrrh. Not meant to be taken seriously or read like some holy novel. It just won't work. Rated T... Currently on severe writer's block
1. It is time!

The Adventures of the Clavats and Selkies and Stuff

  
Chapter 1 : It Is Time!

It was time.

The pale rays of the early sun began to glow over the distant horizon, the dark sea reflecting its golden light. Birds began to chirp, and the cows lowed and began their daily routine of biting the grass short. The sun rose higher, little by little, shining its life-giving light over the little sleeping village.

It was time.

We now look in on mothers and fathers rising now to do their daily work; the fisherman casted out a fresh net, the rancher tended to the cows that needed milking, the blacksmith heated up his forge, and the tailor did whatever tailors do. The young ones were still in bed, only to wake when the first delicious smells of breakfast wreathed them. Among them were the young men and women who were to set out for their first year as a crystal caravan for the small village of Riverki today. We see them now, sleeping so peacefully...except for one who looks like he is in an uncomfortable position and is drooling all over the place...

It was time-

"Oh, SHUT UP!"

Rikana, the tailor's daughter, hurled a pretty colored rock from her rock collection on her bedside table at the ceiling, a futile attempt to hurt the narrator in any way. Grumpily, she yanked the covers over her head, trying to get back to sleep.

_-Well, excuuse me, Mrs. Grumpypants, but I am just trying to narrate the story here! _(this is the narrator speaking here; people in this fanfic hear this as thoughts)

"Could ya narrate silently or something?? I am trying to sleep!" Rikana growled venomously from under her sheets.

_-I am sorry, that is impossible. Oh, and did you know, IT WAS TIME FOR YOU TO START YOUR ADVENTURE??_

Rikana's bedsheets came flying off and sunlight blasted through her window full into her face. Cursing, she promptly rolled off the bed.

_Thump!_

"Rikana! Are you fighting with the narrator again?" Rikana's mother, Noo Mee yelled from downstairs. "Why don't you come downstairs for breakfast? You will be leaving soon!"

Rikana sighed explosively. "Yes, Mother!" She slowly stood up stiffly and stretched, the smell of some meat cooking in her nostrils. Taking a sturdy wooden comb, she combed her long, shaggy-looking silver hair that would remind you of wolf fur by the way it stuck out here and there. Taking a thick hair-tie, she tied it where it met her lower back, and below the tie the hair curled out and up, like a little silver tail. Adjusting her bangs in the little mirror on her wall, she then proceeded down the stairs for breakfast.

--------------------

"Wake up, big brother, wake up!"

Silvon, the blacksmith's son, slowly opened his eyes to see his little sister, Momo Phiy perched on his chest, peering down into his face, her tiny hands tugging gently at his silver bangs. "Wake up, Silvon, you gotta eat breakfast before you go!" Smiling, he picked her up and held her high above his head.

"You little rascal, I oughta toss you outta my room!" He growled playfully at her. Momo squealed and wriggled in his grasp. "No toss me!! Lemme down!!" She was wriggling so violently that she almost slipped free and fell on Silvon's face. He managed to catch her in time, and set her down gently on the floor next to his bed. "Watch it! You almost broke my face there!" Momo laughed at this, and danced away, chanting, "I broked Silvon's face, I broked Silvon's face!" Chuckling, Silvon reached for his red bandanna on his bedpost, and, with the help of a old mirror, tied the bandanna over his thick, silver hair and adjusted his hair here and there. Satisfied that he was now worthy of looking at-

"Hey! Are you trying to call me ugly?"

_-I am not trying, I am just telling how it is!_

"...You're calling me ugly, aren't ya? Hey!! Don't you dare leav-"

--------------------

"Honey, it's morning...Serina?"

Harmia looked around the door to her oldest daughter's room to see that the bed was vacant and there was no sign of her in there. Sighing, she closed the door and walked out to where her daughter's favorite relaxing place was; leaning on the fence penning in their cows. She found her daughter there, deep in thought.

Serina started slightly as her mother came up next to her, as silent and undetected as a ghost. If Serina was not used to this habit of her mother's, she would probably have whipped out her sword and attacked her. She is spontaneously violent like that.

"Mother! Please, don't do that anymore! I might accidently attack you for no apparent reason one day!" Serina exclaimed as her mother joined her on leaning on the rickety old fence. It's a good thing they were not fat or the fence would have gave in and and they would have splinters and stuff. Harmia sighed and examined the fence, silently agreeing with the narrator. _It's a wonder these little dried up twigs of a fence keep our cows in. Heck, it wouldn't take much for an adventure-seeking cow to break free..._ She thought, already having to dig a little splinter out of her middle finger. She turned to Serina, while still digging out the splinter.

"Serina, come inside. We've go-"

"MOTHER!!! ARE YOU FLIPPING ME OFF??" Harmia jumped with shock from Serina's shout, and looked down to see that, indeed, she was flipping Serina off, but not intentionally, of course. Whatta horrible mother-

"Hey!!! You wanna go, narrator!? Come on, just you and me!!" Harmia rounded on the narrator who was having fun making them do stupid stuff and stuff. Oh, she was still digging the splinter out, so now she was flipping the narrator off.

_-I'm sorry, Harmia, but I can't let that go unpunished._

"Wha-" Harmia began to protest, but is cut off by a loud, agonished moo from one of the fattest cows. She and Serina exchanged exhausted looks, then walked over to the cow. Apparently, the narrator struck the cow with something that made it constipated.

"What the- not again!!" Serina's father, Belgano shook his head in disgust; he had run out to see why the cow was mooing like so, and found that his wife had tried to pick a fight with the narrator again, so the narrator responded by constipating the fattest and stinkiest cow...again. He turned to Harmia. "Why can't you just leave the narrator alone? You must have figured out by now you will never win against it!"

Harmia scowled defiantly. "Ohhh, that horrible narrator! That's it, I am not gonna do as it says anymore!!" Here Harmia went back over to the fence and slumped on it. Because the fence was so old, the sudden descent of weight on it broke it like a twig, and Harmia went down in a cloud of dust and splinters.

_-Ohh, I am the narrator here!! What I say goes, and you will go with everything I say!_

Harmia found that she no longer had control over her body. Robot-like, she stood up, and walked like a retarded toy soldier back into the house. "CURSE YOU NARRATOR!! CURSE YOU!! I WILL FIND A WAY TO GET BACK AT YOU!!" Harmia was yelling the entire way. "Oh, and Serina, darling, there is breakfast on the table. Eat up now!" Serina and Belgano just stood there and stared stupidly.

--------------------

The final caravan person, a young Clavat lad named Garnos, was the one mentioned earlier that was sleeping in the most uncomfortable position and a trickled of drool ran steadily out of his mouth, adding to the little puddle on the ground. He was perched dangerously on the edge of his bed, his head dangling down, one foot up against the wall, his arms widespread. He snored loudly, so loudly he did not hear his parents calling from downstais. However, his wake-up call came eventually, in the form of a little blonde girl...

"Wakey wakey, Garny!!"

All Garnos could remember was in his dream he was fighting this large yellow monster that was armed with clubs, and the monster had struck him with the force of a runaway horse in his stomach with one of its clubs. His red-brown eyes shot wide open to see his little sister Paulie had jumped on his exposed stomach. She was kneeling on it now, grinning evilly at him. She suddenly jumped off of him, as he began to slide a bit off the bed.

_Bump!_

Garnos landed on his head next to the drool puddle. Paulie danced around him, singing, "Get uppy, Garny! Get uppy, Garny! It's time for you to go!" She laughed crazily as she ran downstairs, easily dodging Garnos' feeble attempt to grab her from his upsidedown position. Completely winded, he rolled painfully onto his side to recover, gasping and glaring in the direction his evil little sister had fled. "I'll get you for that, you little squirt of hellish acid!" He gritted out through clenched teeth. After a considerable time, Garnos recovered enough to stand. Stretching his muscles, cramped from the weird position he had slept in all night, he looked out the window, and froze. To his horror, he saw that Roland, the village elder, was standing out in front of the massive crystal protecting Riverki from the deadly miasma with the group of chosen young individuals that were to leave for myrrh...today!! He was late!!

Cursing darkly under his breath, he quickly pulled on his shirt (he slept with no shirt, because once in a nightmare, he had shredded his last one), stepped into his shoes, and buckled on his belt. He zoomed down the stairs, neatly plucking a roasted fish off his breakfast plate, now somewhat cold, and gobbled it down as he hurried out to Roland.

Roland was deep in conference with the 3, a young man and 2 young women, telling them how to behave and watch out for monster and yadda yadda yadda, all that stuff that is useless 'cuz everyone knows it already...maybe except the 'dont hog the food' or 'attempt to dive off the top of a wagon into a shallow pool' part...Anyways, he was in the middle of that when Garnos came bombing in, smelling of fish.

_Boom!_

There was a mini explosion in the middle of the group. Didn't I say, 'Garnos came bombing in'? Actually, that kinda makes no sense at all, so lets rewind and try that again...

_Rewinding..._

Anyways, he was in the middle of that when Garnos came _hustling_ in, elbowing people aside and smelling quite strongly of fish.

"Hey, did I miss anything important?" Garnos panted, breathing his fishy breath all over Roland. Roland turned a rather unhealthy shade of green. The others just stared. Suddenly...

"_BELCH!"_

Garnos belched loudly and stinkily into Roland's face. As you can probably tell, Roland is not fond of fish, and this just made his stomach react in the best way it could. Roland doubled over and vomited all over the place. Oh man, I'm tellin' you, _all over the place._ I mean, there was a 16 foot deep pool on the ground of it. It was all over the houses and flooded the river the bridge into Riverki was built over...

"Uh...Narrator?"

_-WHAT IS IT NOW, PUNY SUBJECT OF MY HORRIBLE STORY?_

The 3 other would-be travelers blinked. Garnos, however, was unabashed by this comment. "The place is not covered in vomit...which is kinda weird, 'cuz you're the narrator, and everything you say should go..."

Plothole!

_-WHATEVER! Just, lemme get on with the story!!_

Ok, this is taking forever, so lets just fast foward to the part where everyone is leaving, and leave out the lame corny part with the families weeping and stuff.

_Fastforwarding..._

We see now, the 4 travelers, finally leaving Riverki for myrrh so that their little village may continue to thrive and everyone stay alive and stuff...except for that little girl Paulie...She can go die or something...

Paulie promptly gives the narrator the finger, which her mother Christie quickly hid and she pulled Paulie back into the house before anything bad happened.

--------------------

So the adventure of the 2 Clavats and 2 Selkies begins! What dangers, monsters, and obstacles will they encounter? What acts of stupidity and stuff will they commit? I know, to some of you, this chapter seems short, but not as short as some I have seen (good god that last one was only like 3 skinny paragraphs long!)! Please review, then I shall update soon!


	2. Garnos gets hungryDAN DAN DAN!

The Adventures of the Clavats and Selkies and Stuff

Chapter 2 : Garnos Gets Hungry...DAN DAN DAN!!!

In the first chapter, the 4 travelers got together and left Riverki to start their journey for the myrrh tree for a lousy drop of myrrh and stuff like that. That is one thing I will never get. I mean, the entire tree seems to be made of solid myrrh!! I guess it just takes it like 2 years just to melt off 1 drop by itself...

As you all know, or at least everyone who paid some attention to the first chapter, Garnos did not eat anything for breakfast-

"Yes I did!" Garnos interrupted rather rudely and is in danger of being hurt in some way, for it is a complete NO-NO to interrupt the narrator. "I ate that fishy when I was running out of the house! Roland vomited because of it, remember?"

_-Of course I remember! Hmph! The next time you interrupt, I shall give you an atomic flick! Now put that stuff about raising your hand you learned about at school to good use!_

Garnos look confused. "What is school?" He interrupted..._again!_ (Here my imaginary-like giant hand of narratorness comes out of the sky and gives Garnos an 'atomic' flick. Basically, I flick him so hard, its like he's got some atomic jetpack on, 'cuz one second he's here, the next he's gone!)

Garnos pretty much exited the planet and all its deadly miasma and went into orbit around the planet. He was going so fast, he completed 4 revolutions in 20 seconds before descending back into the planet. He bounced off the treetops, slammed into the ground and skidded to a halt next to the wagon, back to where he was before I flicked him, in the saftey of the little crystal's power. You know, that little one on the chalice thing that collects the myrrh.

"Was that physically possible? For an organism to burn into orbit and complete 4 revolutions around the planet in 20 seconds? And to survive that fall??" Silvon asked, all smart and stuff.

Plothole!

"Man, all that revolution stuff and going into orbit makes me hungry!" Garnos exclaimed, getting up and dusting himself off as though he did not just do something impossible for any soft-fleshed being and traveled faster than he will ever travel in his life. He jumped into the wagon and, once he located it, instantly gorged himself on the caravan's food supplies. The noise was loud and slightly sickening.

"What the crap is going on in there!?" Rikana dropped behind the wagon and peeked in. "OH MY GOD!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" She screamed upon seeing that Garnos had already depleted 3/4 of their food supplies. Garnos paused in his massacre of the supplies, looking up at Rikana with a hint of guilt on his food-stained face. Serina, who was driving, turned around, and began laughing at Garnos.

"Garnos! Are you eating or taking a bath in the food?" Serina laughed, her laughter sweet and clear like a summer breeze among bluebells.

Everyone stopped and stared at the narrator, with the exception of Silvon, who had been secretly staring at Serina from the moment he saw her. He sighed as he mentally agreed with the narrator...

_-...Whatchya looking at? I got that little part from a book, ok? I am not good at making up those kinds of stuff!! Now stop looking before I MAKE you stop!_

Everyone instantly looked down and returned their attention to Garnos, who was starting to feel like they had forgotten about him. He immediately hid under some thick blankets as everyone turned back to him. Rikana was furious.

"OH MY GOD, YOU JUST WENT AND PRETTY MUCH ATE ALL OUR FOOD! NOW WE ARE ALL GOING TO STARVE, AND IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT! BLAH BLAH BLAH..." Rikana gave Garnos the sternest lecture he had ever received in his life. In fact, he was sure it was worse than the time when he stuck his sister's pet tortoise's head up one of Serina's cow's butthole, which sparked a fat cow stampede that caused death and destruction and doom and damage and...and...some other words that start with 'd'! He was grounded so bad, they literally dug him into the ground with only his head exposed. Don't worry, he got out only because the narrator thought his stunt was so funny and decided to dig him out.

Rikana's lecture, or more like her screaming rampage thing went on for a good, long time. Everybody's ears began to hurt, and Garnos began to get hungry again, so he finished off the food supplies and sat dully, waiting for Rikana to stop. Even after he consumed some 400 plus pounds of food, his stomach still growled for more. Whatta pig...

"You're telling me! Now could someone get that young Selkie to stop?"

Serina jumped with suprise as she turned and saw that a small fluffly moogle was sitting next to her without her noticing. The moogle twitched its ears in irritation, as Rikana was still screaming so loud no one else heard the moogle, and the moogle's ears were on the verge of exploding.

"Oh, they are?" The moogle looked horrified as he heard the narrator say this. "I can't let my ears explode now! I have to stop that Wolfie!"

With a few flaps of its ridiculousy tiny purple wings, the moogle was airborne. It flapped to the back of the wagon, where the Selkie was, who was indeed a Wolfie (for crying out loud, I described her in the first chapter you know), and tried to float backwards in front of Rikana to get her attention.

"Excuse me, Miss, could you stop-" The moogle tried to quiet her down, but Rikana was screaming something about cutting up the masumakicomwa whatever you call that blue thing pulling the wagon, and eating it. The masukiki heard, and stopped in its tracks, rearing back and trying to break free of its harness and run away. It had to get away!! Away from these mamuluke eating people!! Because it stopped, and the moogle was still flying backwards with Rikana still power walking fowards, they both crashed into the back of the wagon, Rikana's face burying itself in the moogle's fluffy white body, a big mouthful of the fur gagging her.

"I say! HELP!! HELP!! THIS LADY IS TRYING TO EAT ME!!" The moogle cried piteously as Rikana started working her mouth, trying to get the fur out of her mouth. Of course she failed miserable, cuz the moogle was still in her fat face! Silvon came running round.

"Oh my god!! RIKANA!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING??" Silvon cried, and, grabbing her by her huge mane of silver-blue hair, started pulling her away from the poor moogle. She came free of course, it wasn't like she was stuck or anything, and, tripping over a rock, knocked Silvon backwards and landed heavily on him. The moogle dropped to the ground, some fur missing from his chest, as it was still in Rikana's mouth. The manlymoo managed to break free of its harness and, panic-stricken, hurried away, with Serina calling after it.

"Bobo! Come back!! She didn't mean it!!" Serina yelled, but it was no use. Bobo was gone...FOREVER!! Serina's golden-brown eyes welled up with tears. She dropped to the ground on her knees, shook her fists at the sky, and wailed all dramatic like.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

_-Let's make this even more sad and dramatic!_

The weather suddenly changed all stormy like and rainy, soaking the little long-haired Clavat kneeling in the now muddy path, still shaking her fists at the stormy sky.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Garnos, who was still sitting in the wagon, and was _still_ hungry, was bored now, and he jumped off, not at all noticng the freak change in the weather, and headed off into the woods to find some food. But wait...How could he wander off in the deadly miasma without a crystal protecting him?

Plothole!

I guess he could manage that the same way he managed to go through all that revolution stuff around the planet and not get a single fractured or broken bone...

The weather suddenly stopped, 'cuz the dramatic scene grew old already to the narrator, and we turn our attention back to Rikana, Silvon, and the poor little moogle. Rikana rolled off of Silvon and slowly got up.

"Ugh! Look at me! I'm all wet!" Rikana wrung like 10 gallons of water out of her huge, long hair.

"I'm not," Silvon sat up. Indeed, Silvon and even the patch of ground he was laying on did not have a single drop of water land on them; Rikana's huge fatness of hair had caught it all for them. How weird... "Hey, is that moogle alright?" Silvon went over to the little moogle's side, who was lying forbiddingly limp on the ground, a little tuft of white hair in the mud. He rolled the little body over, and tried to discern whether the moogle was still conscious. He didn't know it, but the moogle was staring at him, staying perfectly still, afraid the Bandanna Selkie would try to eat him too. There was no way Silvon could have known it; I mean, come on!! It's like moogles don't have eyes!! Just little black lines on their faces!

"I say, sir, you don't plan on eating me, do you?" The moogle asked in a tiny voice.

"Of course not," Silvon replied gently. "Rikana wasn't trying to eat you either...actually, I don't know what she was doing."

"HEY!! WHERE IS THAT FAT PIG GARNOS!?" Rikana thundered as she tore through the wagon, searching madly for Garnos. "I AM NOT DONE SCOLDING HIM!!!" She jumped off the wagon and spotted his tracks going into the woods. "DAMN IT, HE WANDERED OFF!! I NEED TO GO FIND HIM!!"

"You go do that, but could you please stop yelling?" Silvon glared at Rikana, his hands clasped protectively over the poor moogle's sensitive ears so that they would not explode.

"Just in a sec... HEY NARRATOR!!! CAN YOU GIVE ME A LITTLE HELP HERE?" Rikana roared at the narrator, who was busy creating some trouble some distance away.

_-Hm? Oh, sure thing..._

Here, a little portable crystal thing that would protect Rikana appears magically in her hands. Not bothering to tell the others to wait, as they could go nowhere without Bobo pulling the wagon, she stalked off into the woods after Garnos. Garnos better start running for his life, quick!

"Are you alright?" Silvon asked the moogle after Rikana was gone. "What's your name?"

"I...I think I will be alright," The moogle said hesitantly. "My name is Hamithonean Arcitonutarmos Makilocomwa...But you can just call me Ham," The moogle added quickly when he saw Silvon's face go blank.

"So Ham...I am Silvon," Silvon replied cheerfully. "The young man that Selkie was yelling at was Garnos, the Selkie as you know is Rikana, and that sad looking lady over there is Serina..." Silvon trailed off as he looked at the sad little form still kneeling in the mud.

"Very good...though why do you say '_was_ Garnos'?"

"Because when Rikana catches him, she just might kill him."

"How brutal..."

"Yep..."

They sat silently there awhile, listening for the telltale sounds that Rikana caught Garnos, but there was none. Here the narrator got bored and didn't know what to write, so we shall just sit here and be bored too.

_Several minutes later..._

"Well, it's gonna be awhile before Rikana catches Garnos and comes back, so why don't you make yourself comfortable? I got some problems to straighten out," Silvon said to Ham. Nodding wearily to Silvon, Ham flapped into the wagon, where he made himself comfortable in the thick blankets Garnos was trying to hide in. He promptly fell asleep.

Silvon went over to Serina, who was still kneeling there in the mud as though if she knelt there long enough, Bobo would come back. He didn't.

"So, Bobo is gone? Our wagon is stuck here unless he comes back or something?" Serina nodded dumbly. Silvon sighed deeply and laced his fingers behind his head. He studied the deep tracks Bobo had made in his flight. "Perhaps I can go looking for him..."

"But who will watch the wagon? That moogle and I can't guard it against any small groups of bandits. Lone monsters, sure, but we can't take on any major forces..." Silvon looked down at Serina, then sat down wearily next to her.

"Looks like we are going to have to wait Rikana returns, and hope that she brings Garnos back alive with her. We will need someone to pull the wagon." Serina nodded, then began to cry.

"WHY OH WHY DID BOBO HAVE TO LEAVE??" She wailed. She was so sad!! Bobo was gone!! The world was going to end and blow up and everything if Bobo didn't come back! And Bobo is still not coming back!! WE ARE ALL DOOMED!!! All of a sudden the Long-haired Clavat needed something to hug to bits. The only thing huggable near her was Silvon...

"ARRRGHHH, GASP, WHEEZE," Silvon gasped for air as Serina wrapped her arms tightly around his middle and squeezed really, really hard. She buried her face in his chest and began to soak him in her tears. _Ah great..._He thought. He attempted to break free, but failed miserably. In the end, he managed to loosen her grasp a bit, and, hoping that comforting her would make her let go sooner, put his arm around her. It looked cute from the distance, but really Serina was squeezing Silvon to bits. I think she even broke one of his ribs...mmmmm, ribs...

--------------------

_Meanwhile, in the woods with Rikana hunting Garnos down..._

Rikana was having some trouble tracking Garnos. Here and there, his tracks would disappear next to fruit trees, and she could see all the scuff marks and scratches and broken limbs from Garnos scaling the tree after its delicious fruit. All the trees were stripped of their fruit. Often times, she had to go through thick bushes and prickly brush. Garnos was not bothered by this, as he was wearing thick clothing that covered his entire body except for his knee-short shorts. Rikana, however, was dressed in what most female Selkies were dressed in; smallish tube top, smallish skirt thing, sometimes some leggings of some sort, those things she wears on her shoulders, and some fur wristbands. All in all, it didn't provide much protection from prickly bushes and stuff.

"Stupid Garnos, can't you just go around these things?" Rikana grumbled as she fought through another one; her legs, arms, and middle were scored with many scratches, some were bleeding. Suddenly, she found that Garnos' tracks turned sharply and, looking down the path he took, she saw a small path of destruction going through the bushes and underbrush and all that vegetation. She saw that it zig-zagged terribly, as though Garnos was desparately trying to escape some monster chasing him. Upon closer examination, to her horror she saw many more footprints overlapping each other, all of them chasing Garnos' footprints. Big footprints. The entire place stunk of some disgusting smell Rikana could not identify; afterall, this is her first time going outside Riverki, so she had no experience with any monsters of any sort.

"Ah shit," Rikana muttered, taking out her staff and, dropping into a crouch, moved stealthily foward. "What trouble did you get yourself in now, Garnos?"

--------------------

Cliffhanger! What kind of trouble DID Garnos get himself into now? Will Rikana be able to save him in time? Is Rikana even planning to save him? Will Bobo ever come back, or will the world end and blow up and doom us all? Please review and I shall update!


	3. Rikana to the Rescue!

Adventures of the Clavats and Selkies and Stuff

Chapter 3 : Rikana to the Rescue and Some Tsunami Trouble!

Where we left off in the last chapter, Bobo had run away, leaving the caravan stranded without that blue creature thing to pull the wagon, and it seems that Garnos has gotten himself into big trouble. Rikana, however was following his tracks. But does she plan to save Garnos? Perhaps, just to kill him later, but why go through the trouble when she could just leave him with the mysterious band of monsters he had supposedly been kidnapped by? We shall never know what was going through her mind when she decided to find him and bring him back, monsters or no monsters...Well, the thought, "What the hell?" certainly went through her mind when she happened upon a muffin, hanging by a string tied to something high up in the thick foilage of the trees. She looked at it dumbfounded; some monsters jumping out, maybe even Garnos' body was what she was expecting to find, not a muffin!

"Hm...it looks yummy...a little _too_ yummy..." She muttered to herself. She ducked behind some bushes and carefully scanned the area for an ambush. Suddenly struck by an idea, she grabbed a long, fallen branch, climbed up a tree near the muffin and hid herself in the leaves. Winding the string the muffin was tied to around the end of the branch a few times, she paused, listening for any noises. She could have sworn she heard the excited panting of some large creature. That terrible stink mentioned in the previous chapter grew stronger. With a swift yank, she snapped the string the muffin was attached to. She almost fell off her perch on the branch when a net, hidden under the thick carpet of leaves on the ground, swooped up...and would have snared her like a fish if she had been standing there. Instantly, a group of large, red goblins leapt from their cover and stabbed viciously with their curved swords at the suspended net full of leaves.

"_Well, despite the neat little trap, that lot down there is a bunch of dumbasses_," Rikana thought to herself as she, with a flick of the branch she was holding to, retrieved the muffin and munched on it. Now she knows what she's up against, and what caught Garnos. But a chill of fear ran through her. The goblins had not hesitated to stab that net thoroughly. If she had been in there, she would be dead right now. How could Garnos survive in the company of such vicious monsters? Finishing the yummy muffin, she swung off through the branches above the treacherous forest floor, as agile as a monkey in the trees. She paused here and there to scrutinize the tracks, which were very clear and obvious, and continued her flight through the trees, towards Garnos' probable position.

She was in midswing when the trees around her began shaking. Nearly missing the next branch and falling, she clung on for dear life. All the vegetation around here was shaking! The ground was shaking! It must be a sort of a mild earthquake or something!

This continued on for a bit, then stopped suddenly. The wind, which was just a simple breeze, had picked up in speed and strength. Rikana wondered at this, but pushed it out of her mind; she had to find Garnos, quick. Time was running out.

--------------------

_Several hours later at the stranded wagon..._

Silvon managed to survive Serina's death hug, and was now seated on the wagon tongue, slowly recovering. Serina was inside the wagon; she had cried herself to sleep. Silvon winced as he rubbed his bruised ribs. Fortunately, nothing was broken or fractured. Slowly lying back, he heaved a sigh and stared up at the clear sky. There was a little white blur at the top of his vision. He blinked a couple of times, but it didn't go away. Craning his neck back, he saw the white blur was Ham perched on the edge of the wagon roof. Seeing that Silvon had spotted him, Ham fluttered down carefully onto Silvon's chest.

"Good day sir, I hid up on top of the wagon after I saw what happened to you," Ham said. "I certainly didn't want that lady to squeeze me 'til my eyes popped, no sir!" Silvon smiled, then frowned.

"Why don't you ever say 'kupo', like all the other moogles I've ever met?" Ham started with shock at the word 'kupo'.

"I don't say kupo because it just annoyed the crap out of me, saying it all the time, so I managed to make myself stop...kupo..." Silvon was shocked to see great rage possess Ham's cute features

"DAMN YOU, SILVON, YOU GOT ME SAYIN' IT AGAIN, KUPO!!!" Ham cried as he hopped madly on Silvon's chest. Silvon winced and pushed Ham away. Ham flapped his wings, hovering in place, his furry body shaking with fury.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO STOP SAYING KUPO, KUPO? 12 YEARS, KUPO!! 12 FREAKING YEARS, KUPO!!" Ham then proceeded to ram his small fluffy body against Silvon. Because of his fur, Ham would have bounced off harmlessly, but with Silvon's bruised ribs, each fluffy bounce was like a club to his body. Wincing, Silvon jumped around, trying to avoid Ham's relentless attacks.

"Calm down, Ham!! I didn't know you spent such a ridiculously long time just to stop saying a silly word! I say, STOP!!" Silvon jumped onto the wagon and drew the canvas covering tightly shut. He ran throught the wagon, shutting all the windows and drew the rear covering shut as well. He could see the dark shadow of the moogle fluttering outside, and occasionally it would throw itself agains the canvas. The entire time Ham was screaming about how long it took to stop saying 'kupo' and how stupid the word is and stuff like that.

"What is going on?" Serina said. She woke up to the moogle's first shouts.

"Apparently, Ham doesn't like saying kupo, and I somehow go him saying it again..." Silvon said, watching Serina warily, ready to face Ham's wrath over another of Serina's death hugs. Serina crawled over to him.

"Are you alright? I mean, your ribs? I knew I kinda squeezed you a little too hard by the way you were gasping and wheezing and trying to break free," Serina said, full of concern as she saw Silvon's every movement was laden with pain.

"They are a bit sore, but I will get well," Silvon said, relaxing a little, but still wary of the death hugger.

"Lemme have a look at it," Serina said, reaching out towards Silvon.

"Uh...no?" Silvon backed away. "First off, this isn't a shirt I can simply take off, it is a sort of tunic thing, and what good would looking at it do?" Serina looked annoyed.

"Come on! Just lemme look at it somehow, I can make it better if it isn't too bad."

"Oh really? How?"

Serina sighed explosively. She grabbed her sword, loosened the canvas and ran outside, with Silvon instantly tightening it again behind her. A few moments later he heard some monster scream a distance away, and Serina returned, carrying some blue stone that glowed with power.

"It's rather windy outside...Oh, it holds magic for cure," She said simply to Silvon's questioning look. "Now don't be a baby and lemme see your ribs."

Silvon hesitated, but he really wanted to get better, so he loosened the leather belt thing holding his clothing up and rolled it down only so that his torso was exposed. He was as shocked as Serina to see his sides were all purply and blue. He didn't think she hugged him that bad! Serina looked very sorry and guilty for a second, then banished her bad feelings and focused on healing Silvon. Placing one hand on the stone and the other on Silvon's side, she concentrated, charging up her power and stuff to cast cure. She glowed with power, which flowed down her arm and over Silvon's bruises. When she removed her hand, the glowing disappeared, as well as the bruises. Silvon examined her work with relief.

"Sweet! I'm alright again!" Silvon quickly rolled his clothing back up and tightened the leather belt thing again. They both jumped with shock as they heard yelling and screaming. They knew it was coming from a fair distance away, as the yells and screams were faint, but they were getting louder at an alarming rate; whatever the trouble was, it was heading straight for them.

Silvon and Serina looked at each other, and in unison they brought Ham in and smushed him under a pillow to quiet him down, closed and blocked every avenue into the wagon securely, and opening only one window to peek out, they remained completely silent. Maybe if they gave no signs away that there were living beings in the wagon, the danger would pass. They watched anxiously as the noises continued to get louder.

--------------------

Rikana had made it to a little camp sort of thing where a band of the smelly, big red goblins were camping out. Moving carefully as to not attract any unwanted attention, Rikana was relieved to have located a cage sort of thing where Garnos lay bound and gagged; he was very much alive, Rikana could see by the way he twitched and rolled around, trying to escape the sharp sticks a few goblins were cruelly poking at him. He whimpered as he saw some more goblins digging a firepit and tossing in it logs and tinder. They clearly intended to eat poor Garnos. Much to Rikana's suprise, she also spotted...Bobo!! Bobo was tethered to a tree, his legs hobbled so he could not run. An even bigger firepit was being dug for him too! Rikana had to do something about this, fast!

Rikana thought and thought, but she could not find a foolproof plan that could get all three of them out alive and well. Complicating this was the goblins that were always around the prisoners; if she was to get them all out, she needed to somehow dispose of the goblins who would alert the rest of the band if they caught sight of her. She was about to give up when the biggest and meanest goblin barked at the smaller goblins around the prisoners. Rikana watched intently as all of them scattered and began picking up any piece of wood available. Obviously they were ordered to collect enough wood to cook Bobo. She smiled grimly to herself; now it is the time to free Garnos and Bobo while they were ignored!

Garnos had given up on all hopes of ever getting out alive and seeing his parents again when he sensed someone breaking into his cage. Terrified that it was a goblin going to gobble him up for itself, he rolled himself around and prepared to kick the crap out of the goblin, when he saw it was Rikana!!

"Shhhhh, don't make so much noise!" Rikana whispered urgently as Garnos began making strangled squeals of uncontained joy. Garnos immediately fell silent, and held still as Rikana cut through his bonds with a sharp rock. When he was free, he jumped on Rikana and kissed her all over her cheeks (no lips), weeping with the joy of new found hope for life.

"Rikana! I was sure I was goblin meat!" He wept, still smothering her cheeks with kisses. Rikana turned red and her cheeks burned with embarrassment and a little what seemed like pleasure, but she composed herself quickly and held Garnos a full arm's-length away.

"Get a hold of youself, Garnos! We need to get out of here, quick!"

"But how will we escape? Those goblins move fast, you know!" Rikana motioned to Bobo.

"We will ride away on him!" Garnos looked at her, then Bobo, then her, then Bobo, then her again, then at the tree, then at a little ladybug in the grass...

_Smack!_

"OW!" Garnos gasped as Rikana slapped him.

"Enough fooling around! Some of the goblins noticed us! GET MOVING!" Rikana hissed. Indeed, some of the goblins were watching them in their slow, dull manner, then realizing that the Wolfie Selkie was freeing the Natural Clavat, they began to babble and make unintelligable noises at each other, pointing at the two. The two sprinted across the camp to Bobo, Garnos snatching a goblin's curved sword from the owner who was incredibly slow, and with that he quickly sawed through Bobo's bonds and in a flash they were both on Bobo and Bobo was galloping away.

The entire camp came to life with angry red goblins, and, with disconcerted howls of rage, they ran after the fleeing trio. Like Garnos had said, they moved alarmingly quick, and they were gradually closing the gap between them and their quarry. Bobo, sensing this, put on another spurt of speed. For some reason, they seemed to be traveling downhill...

Their flightpath kept on going downhill; at some points, Garnos thought Bobo would trip and they would roll the rest of the way, but Bobo's nimble yet stubby feet kept this from happening. Gradually, the ground turned from solid earth to loose sand. Sweat rolled off Bobo as he labored to keep up his initial speed in the sinking sand. He burst through a screen of bushes, and was so astonished at what he saw, he lost his footing and the three rolled down a little hill and stopped in the wet sand. They were on a beach!

Scrambling to their feet, the three attempted to run along the water line, but goblins streamed out onto the beach and spread out, boxing them in! Now there were goblins on all 3 sides, with the sea behind them. Backing up, the water lapping at their ankles, Rikana wielded her racket, Garnos the goblin blade, which was a bit big, so he wielded it with 2 hands, and Bobo...well, he had his massive bulk and teeth and stuff. The goblins sneered and jeered at them, flicking fearsome curved blades at them.

"Good thing there are no rocks on the beach for the goblins to throw at us!" Garnos commented to Rikana. Rikana only grunted in reply. The goblins seemed to be readying themselves for a charge, and they were about to when Garnos, glancing over his shoulder, suddenly called to Rikana.

"Hey, what does it mean when the water goes out really, really far like that?" The goblins, stupid as they were, stopped to listen to Garnos' question, then looked at Rikana for her answer.

"What do you mean..." Rikana's voice died in her throat as she turned to see what Garnos was talking about. Sure enough, the water receded out really far, I mean, a bit too far for her liking. Squinting in the setting sun, she saw what wasn't the best thing to see in a situation like this. She saw from afar the wave; it may seem small now, but it gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger...

_It was a freakin' tsunami, man!!!_

A tsunami! Of course! Rikana recalled feeling the earthquake so many hours ago, and the wind was still quite strong. She quickly jumped onto Bobo, Garnos scrambling up behind her. The goblins shifted nervously; they obviously sensed something amiss.

Garnos stared at them.

"Well, what are you just standing there for?"

The goblins stared back blankly.

**"RUN!!!!"**

To Rikana's amazement, the goblins did run. In fact, they were tripping over each other trying to be the one out of there first. Perhaps it is because the tsunami doesn't exactly travel slowly...

Rikana's heart skipped a beat as she looked behing her.

**"DAMMIT BOBO, RUN!!!!"**

And run Bobo did.

--------------------

I think this is my longest chapter yet. Will Bobo, Garnos, and Rikana escape the tsunami? What is making those terrible screams Silvon and Serina heard? Will Ham ever be able to stop saying kupo again? Review and you shall see what happens next!


	4. For a Drop of Myrrh

Adventures of the Clavats and Selkies and Stuff

Chapter 4 : For a Drop of Myrrh...

**"DAMMIT BOBO, RUN!!!!"**

And run Bobo did.

In the last chapter, Garnos, Rikana, and Bobo were cornered on a beach by a band of vicious goblins when the worst that could happen at that moment happened. A tsunami was speeding towards them, growing in strength and size as it came closer and closer. Bobo, with his two passengers clinging to his back for dear life, took off as fast as his short little legs could, sand flying from his heels as he ran through the crowd of fleeing goblins that were a bit slower than Bobo. Rikana risked another glance behind her, and saw that the tsunami was even closer than ever. She also noticed that Bobo was traveling uphill, which was both good and bad. Good, because they will be safe from the tsunami on higher ground. Bad because this was slowing Bobo down, and if they didn't get high enough fast enough, they would be swept down and into the sea by the monstrous wave.

"Hurry up, Bobo! Hurry hurry hurry!!!" Rikana urged Bobo on, and Bobo struggled to speed up some more, but he was getting tired. Suddenly, he slipped on some loose rocks and earth, slamming his face into the ground, catapulting Rikana and Garnos off his back and into the hill he was scaling. They lay there, momentarily stunned from the sudden fall. Rikana was the first to recover. Rubbing her head, she sat up and looked behind her, and screamed. The tsunami was much too close now, it was going to hit land within a minute!! She stared with wide eyes at the giant, 60ft tall wave roaring in. There was no time to lose, they had to move, now!! She kicked out at Bobo, and when Bobo managed to get on his feet, Rikana dumped Garnos on him and jumped on behind Garnos, and Bobo began runnning up the hill again. Rikana could hear the screams of the slower goblins who were too slow to escape the tsunami. The deafening roar of the tsunami grew louder and closer.

"RIKANA!! THE FREAKISHLY HUGE WAVE IS ABOUT TO-" Garnos, newly awakened began to scream at Rikana, but was cut off by the loud, splashing, crashing noise of a 60ft tall wall of solid water striking land at like 200mph; the three were only 65 feet up the hill, 5 feet from the top of the hill (I guess it is more like a smallish mountain...). The land rumbled and shook, and the loose earth on the hill crumbled and slid down, making it even harder for Bobo to continue climbing up. Rikana and Garnos screamed as the water exploded upwards and over them, the spray completely drenching them; time seemed to slow down under the arching roof of water. Any moment now, and the water would crash down on them and sweep them out to sea!! Bobo quickly braced himself, while the Clavat and the Selkie clung for dear life to Bobo's saddle thing and blue fur. The dirty water seemed to pause in midair over them before it came crashing down.

--------------------

Silvon and Serina started with suprise as the earth rumbled and shook a bit. Silvon immediately tried to scramble away just as Serina lunged at him to give him another death hug, this time out of fear of the shaking and stuff, but he failed sort of miserably. She managed to wrap her arms around his middle, and immediately loosened her grasp at his gasp of pain; she didn't want to break a bone for real this time! She look up at him, her golden-brown eyes big and round.

"What was that?? Was that an earthquake?" She asked in a tiny voice. Silvon thought about this, then shook his head.

"I don't think so...it didn't feel like an earthquake should feel...it feels more like something hit the ground with tremendous force!" Silvon answered and Serina wailed in fear and buried her face in his tunic-like clothing. Silvon's face turned white to what he heard Serina say next.

"Oh Silvon!! Rikana and Garnos are still out there!! Suppose they were attacked by whatever hit the ground so hard? Suppose that those are their screams we are hearing!!"

"Oh my god...oh my god..." Silvon breathed, his heart beating faster, his mind reeled. What were they going to do? They needed their wagon, it provided shelter and protection, so they couldn't really abandon it in fear that someone would steal it or something. But he banished that thought; who and how was someone going to steal it? They would need some serious muscle power to pull the wagon away, especially through all that mud! He managed to pry Serina off her and shook her by the shoulders gently to snap her out of her delirious wailing.

"Listen, Serina! We need to go out and find Rikana and Garnos quick! If they are in trouble, we must help them! Quick, grab your weapons and that cure stone, I will take the chalice!"

"Ahem...'scuse me, I will be able to do that for you, kupo," Ham intervened, fluttering over to the chalice and taking it in his tiny mouth.

"Alright then...Let's go! We are running out of time!" Serina nodded dumbly, and, wiping her face on her long sleeves, she grabbed her sword, tucked the stone into her voluminous shirt and ran outside. Silvon grabbed his racket, paused, then slung a coil of rope over his shoulder and followed Serina out, Ham close on his heels.

"Where to?" Serina asked. Silvon looked around a bit.

"That way!" Silvon ran into the woods, following Rikana's tracks. The other two followed him; the rescue party was coming!

_Several minutes of hard running later..._

"Are you sure you are going the right way?" Serina stupidly called up to Silvon, who was following the wide path of grass, still freshly trampled by many feet. Silvon only grunted in reply.

"I thay, thow down a bit, peath, kupo?" Ham panted around the chalice thing in his mouth.

"Not now Ham!! I see our friends!! Oh my god..." The three stopped at the crest of a tiny hill and gaped at the tsunami's second giant wave; though it was smaller than the first, it was still some 50 feet tall. From their vantage point, they could see their friends, completely soaked, some 48 feet up the hill; the first wave did not wash them out to sea, but dragged them down some 12 feet down the hill. If Silvon and the others did not help Bobo, Rikana and Garnos in time, they would be hit straight on by the top of the wave, knocked down and swept away! Garnos here raised his tousled head and saw Silvon, Serina and Ham.

"Heeeeelllp!!!" He wailed piteously, while Rikana was urging Bobo to move up the hill. Bobo's strength, however, was taxed to its limit from staying firm and keeping himself and the others from getting swept into their watery grave. Bobo panted heavily, and slowly inched his way up the hill.

"Hang on buddies!!" Silvon wound and securely tied his rope around a knobbly tree growing crooked on the crest of the hill, then, still holding on to the rope, jumped down and slid all professional like down the slippery and muddy hill. He slowed to a stop next to Bobo, and he quickly tied that end of the rope around Bobo's neck, leaving several feet of left over dangling. He wound the end of this around his hand and slid down behind Bobo. He dug his toes in the mud and set his hands on Bobo's backside, ready to push.

"Hurry guys! Go around front, hold on tight to the rope, and pull!!" Rikana obeyed instantly, Garnos with some hesitation but hurried up with a kick from Rikana. Serina slid down next to Silvon, grabbed his rope, and prepared to push too.

"What are you doing? It is too dangerous!!" Silvon yelled at Serina.

"What are you gonna do when Bobo begins sliding backwards?? You will need someone to help, man!" Silvon opened his mouth to argue, then decided against it. He nodded, and they both pushed, and the other two pulled, with Ham fluttering around nervously with the chalice. Bobo helped by digging his feet in the mud and pushed upwards. 20 feet until the top of the hill. Would they make it?

They all sweated and panted heavily as they fought the slippery mud, which seemed intent on keeping them within striking range of the monster wave coming closer and closer. 15 feet now, what about that wave? Silvon glanced backwards, and immediately dug his feet into the mud.

"Dig yourself in, another wave oncoming!!" Silvon shouted, and everyone obeyed instantly. The wave hit some 5 feet below them, shaking the earth again, and Garnos panicked slightly as they all began to slide slowly down the hill.

"AHHHHHH!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE IN SLOW MOTION!!!" He cried, and Rikana slapped him.

"SHUT IT, AND GET CLIMBING!!" She roared.

"Oh! Serina!" Silvon gasped as Serina slipped in the mud, lost her grip on the rope, and began sliding down the hill which now resembled a giant mud slide. He reached out, and somehow grabbed her hand and held on tightly, despite how muddy their fingers were. Grunting with exertion, he pulled her up, and she grabbed the rope again with her shaking hands. He hoped that she wouldn't want to give him another death hug; she didn't, fortunately.

After what seemed like an eternity of pulling and pushing, and digging in when more of the tsunami's increasingly weaker and smaller waves hit land, they made it to the top. Gasping and wheezing, completely covered in mud, they collapsed on the grass, panting, except for Ham, who just fluttered there, holding the chalice so that they would be protected from the miasma. Serina cut through the rope binding Bobo to the crooked tree with a chop of her blade.

"Whew, that was too close!" Garnos managed to say, sprawled out wide on the grass. He smartly rolled over, barely avoiding the head of Rikana's racket, which was aimed for his stomach.

"THIS WAS ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU FATTY!!" Incredibly enough, even though she was more tired than anything, she still managed to yell at Garnos. "IF IT WASN'T FOR YOUR STUPID FAT STOMACH AND YOU WANDERING OFF, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!!"

"Please, Rikana, stop it!" Silvon cried as he clutched his head with both hands. He felt like his head was going to explode!! Rikana looked as though she was going to continue her rampage, but stopped at a sharp glance from Silvon. She grumbled something foul under her breath and leaned back against the crooked tree, which cracked and gave way almost instantly.

"What the-" She rolled away, and they all watched as the tree they had been using as an anchor for the rope slid down the muddy hill. They looked at each other breathless, realizing how special they should be feeling as the narrator decided not to let the tree fail them before they reached the top and let them slide to their watery grave. I mean, this story would suck a hundred times more than it does already if I went ahead and killed the entire caravan. I gotta finish the story first before I go doing that!

"Man, I hate this story, it's a death trap," Garnos groaned, wrapping his arms around his legs, burying his face in his knees, and he rocked back and forth.

"Careful!" Silvon said sharply as Serina ran over to him again, about to give him a death hug. She paused, then _gently_ wrapped her arms around him. He stroked her soiled hair with one hand, wondering why the hell this crazy lady liked to hug him so much. But it didn't matter, he decided, looking at her gentle features, which were so much like an open book to her thoughts and feelings to him. She was so pretty, even though she was covered in mud...

"Ahem, Silvon, you are staring at Serina in the strangest of ways, kupo," Ham spoiled the moment in his usual annoyingly pompous way. Silvon felt like dashing the moogle's head against a rock and feeding it to some monsters.

"How violent, kupo!!" Ham exclaimed, astonished. He dropped the chalice and fluttered a safe distance away from Silvon, who was glaring daggers at him, while Serina was looking at him curiously. Ham fluttered closer to some trees, and-

"KUPO!!!" A large red goblin jumped out, snatched the moogle and disappeared into the trees.

"HAM!!!" Garnos jumped up, ready to attack, but stopped as he realized he didn't have his sword, and he had lost the goblin's blade to the tsunami.

"Sit down, Garnos," Silvon said wearily.

"But that goblin's got Ham!!" Garnos shouted, running agitatedly around like a retard, unsure of what to do.

"So what? That moogle's not worth the trouble of fighting some goblins right now."

"I say, I heard that, kupo!" Ham's voice drifted towards them.

"I don't care if you can hear! All I care about is rest right now!" Silvon yelled back, irritated.

_-Hmph...they aren't reacting to this as I thought they would...Time I changed that!_

The goblin that had kidnapped Ham stomped back to the group sitting there and tossed the moogle into Garnos' face, foiling his attempt at a lunge to attack the foe. Sighing wearily, wondering why the narrator was making him go against 4 fledgling warriors, one of which was a complete idiot, it pulled out its large, curved blade and charged at the most vulnerable and unprepared looking couple; Silvon and Serina. Serina screamed in fright, and Silvon quickly shoved her away and rolled in the opposite direction. The goblin's blade tip buried itself in the ground where Silvon's head was a second ago. In a flash Silvon was on his feet wielding his racket; he swung it up high, then brought it crashing down.

_Crunch!_

There was a sickening cracking sound as the racket crushed the goblin's skull. The goblin collapsed in a limp heap instantly. Silvon did not have to worry about whether the foe was dead or not, as Serina made certain it was dead by stabbing it repeatedly, yelling strange curses and stuff at it. Within seconds, Serina was tearing the body to shreds, the goblin's black blood was everywhere, and Silvon had to drag Serina away to make her stop.

"Serina, stop, STOP!! Can't you see it's dead!?"

"IT IS NOT DEAD, IT IS FAKING!!"

"Then what do you say to that??" Silvon said as the goblin's head came off.

"...I SAY IT IS STILL FAKING!!!"

"That's enough!!" Silvon managed to snatch her blade away without getting his hand chopped off and he held it out of her reach. "Stop!! It is dead!!! That's enough!!" Serina jumped around a bit, trying to get her blade back, then gave up and pouted. Silvon eyed Serina warily.

"Are you going to stop now?" He asked. Serina looked as though she was going to say 'no', then held back. Silvon repeated the question like he would to a naughty 3-year-old. Serina glared at him, tightened her lips, and stiffly nodded.

"Good," He handed her blade back, carefully watching her face for any hint that she would resume shredding what was left of the goblin. He sighed wearily, and Rikana came up to him.

"What are we going to do now?" She asked nonchalantly.

"We might as well go back to our wagon, now that we got everybody back together again...but first, let's get cleaned up somewhere. Anyone know where a nice pool is?" Everybody shook their heads.

"Well...we might as well start looking..." Silvon went over to rouse Bobo, who had fallen asleep. Bobo grunted in displeasure, and reluctantly got up. Silvon took the cut end of the rope still tied around Bobo's neck and led him off through the woods, back to the wagon.

"Come on everybody, let's go get Bobo back in the harness at the wagon, then we will look for someplace to clean up." Everybody wearily got up and plodded after Silvon and Bobo. After a considerable time of fighting throught the underbrush and stuff, they reached the wagon. Garnos grabbed his blade, and everybody got some towels and and spare clothing while Silvon tried to hitch Bobo back up to the wagon. He shook his head in disgust, as Bobo had broken the straps to get away. He untied the long length of rope from Bobo's neck and made a makeshift harness thing out of it. That will have to do for now...

The caravaners and Ham wandered around along a path through the trees, looking for water. They eventually came upon a small river. Garnos promptly jumped in...but only got his shoes cleaned. The water was only ankle deep!

"Don't worry, Garnos," Silvon said as Garnos looked utterly confused. "I am sure this water is sprouting from some kind of pool. Let's go there, maybe there will be deeper water there." So they walked up the stream, and sure enough, it lead to a big pool of some sort, shaded under a cool cliff, off of which ran a waterfall. Everybody gladly jumped in, wearing only an old shirt and shorts, and Silvon thought he saw movement behind the screen of water, where there was a large, dark spot on the cliff wall under the waterfall, which seemed to be a cave of some sort. However, he was enjoying himself too much in the water to care too much.

"Mmmmm, this feels good!" Rikana exclaimed, and everybody else felt the same. It felt good to be in a fresh pool and become clean of all that mud that had begun to dry on them. The water grew only the slightest bit dirty from the filthy bodies swimming around in it, and it did not stop Garnos from drinking gallons of it. They splashed each other and played in the pool, laughing and having a good time. They got out to wash their clothes and the ladies their hair in the stream of course, but the moment they were done, they jumped right back in the pool. However, Silvon continued to get the unsettling feeling that there was something moving in the cave under the waterfall, and he was watching it more and more. Suddenly, he waded ashore, quietly ushering the others to land.

"Quick! Get out of the pool! Quietly now!" Everybody but Garnos sensed the urgent undertone in his voice, and they instantly obeyed. Garnos, however, floated on his back in the middle of the pool and spouted a little fountain of water out of his mouth and nose.

"Whatchya'll doin'?" He scoffed at them. "The water is free and nice, why are you-AAAHHH-"

Silvon gasped and Serina screamed as a giant crab rushed out of the cave in an explosion of water and dunked Garnos under, cutting his cry short. Rikana was instantly shooting burning orbs of energy from her racket at the crab's exposed giant claw in fury.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?? LET GARNOS GO THIS INSTANT!!" She screamed, as though screaming at a crab that knew not a single word of english would make it stop drowing Garnos. It didn't.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god..." Serina gasped, completely in shock. Silvon, however, joined Rikana in shooting at the crab that was drowning Garnos.

"Serina, STOP STANDING THERE, DO SOMETHING!!" He shouted angrily. And Serina did do something. In fact, she did the weirdest thing to the crab. She jumped in the water and proceeded to tickle it under one fleshy armpit while poking it in its eye at the same time. The crab wriggled with both pain and silent laughter, then, unable to take it anymore, exploded out of the water, completely drenching Rikana and Silvon as it sailed over their heads and landed behind them with a teeth-rattling _BOOM! _Serina quickly brought Garnos ashore and worked frantically to revive him.

"Oh shit!" Silvon and Rikana dived out of the way as the crab swung its overgrown claw at them. It slammed into the ground where they were standing just a second ago. Because there was a manner of dangerous sharp objects projecting from the claw, it got stuck fast in the ground. The crab stood there, frothing bubbles at its mouth as it struggled to free its claw. Silvon and Rikana immediately began attacking it's weak points with energy missiles and their rackets. Furious, it glowed with energy, then released a great wave of some electricity at them. They both managed to avoid it, but it caught Silvon's left arm a glancing blow. He gasped in pain, his arm now hung limp, numb and useless at his side. He danced to the side as the crab forcefully tore its claw loose in his direction, throwing giant clods of torn-up earth at them.

"Argh!! My arm!!" Silvon tried to move it as the crab temporarily targeted Rikana, as Silvon was no longer a big threat. He felt a tingly sensation, and the pain and the numbness receded completely. He flexed his arm, and saw that Serina had cured him. She was able to revive Garnos, but he was still not battle-ready yet. He lay a safe distance away, blinking slowly and looking confused. Poor Ham was racing around, trying to keep the others except Rikana in the safety of the chalice's crystal. He did not need to protect Rikana, she still had that portable crystal the narrator gave her.

The 3 drew circles around the slower crab, stabbing and shooting here and there. The crab slashed at them with its other claw, which resembled more of a scythe-like thing, and it would try to catch them under it's killer ginormous claw. However, the constant attacks of the caravaners took its toll; Serina was able to chop off the biggest claw, while the other claw fell off from the constant burning and hammering of the Selkies' long-ranged attackes. All the crab was able to do now was jump around, blow bubbles, and cast thunder magic, which never hit anybody.

"Geese, when will this stupid thing die??" Rikana panted; after all, they have been fighting the crab now for like nearly an hour. Where was Garnos in all of this?

"Garnos...Garnos? Garnos!!" Serina called, and everybody grew alarmed to see that Garnos wasn't laying in the grass a safe distance anymore. The crab took this distraction to its advantage, and, wanting revenge on the Clavat, it prepared to shock her with some thunder magic. It was about to release the spell when-

_Crruunsquelch!_

Everybody turned to the sickening noise of something sharp stabbing something both squishy and crunchy; it was Garnos! He had drove his blade up to the hilt between the creature's eyes. It frothed terribly at the mouth, and its feet stomped crazily on the ground as it went into its death throes. It shuddered, collapsed near the pool, and exploded. Crabby stuff flew everywhere!

"Ooooo, crabby patties!!" Garnos jumped around, trying to catch a chunk of the crab meat, and Rikana slapped him for like the third time that day.

"STOPPIT, THAT IS JUST DISGUSTING!!" She shrilled. She turned absolutely green when Silvon, grinning, shoved a handful of the slimy stuff in her face.

"I think Garnos has a good idea! All this crab meat can last us for months! We would be able to feed Garnos with this!" Rikana looked sick at the idea. Silvon chuckled as she ran off, and there were sounds of her retching into the stream.

"Hey, come look at this!" Serina called from inside the cave the crab had hid in. They came over (Rikana came eventually after hurling her lunch into the stream for the fishies to eat) and joined Serina. They gasped in wonderment as they saw what the crab was guarding. It was the myrrh tree!

"We are about to collect our very first drop of myrrh!!" Garnos was getting all excited. He was so excited, that he snatched the chalice away from Ham and slammed it onto the rock conveniently placed under the tree. Ignoring Silvon's scolding about handling the chalice more carefully, they crowded around and eagerly watched the tree for the drop of myrrh. The single drop of myrrh formed at the tip of the weird, glowing branch extending over the stone, and it dropped in slow-motion...and because of the retarded way Garnos put the chalice on the rock, it was going to miss it completely...

"OH SHIT!!" Silvon dived at the rock all cool and stuff, and knocked the chalice forward just in time. The drop of myrrh landed perfectly in the chalice, their very first drop of myrrh!!

Everybody began to celebrate and stuff except for Garnos and Silvon, who was yelling at Garnos for nearly costing them a precious drop of myrrh by being an idiot and placing the chalice all wrong. And the boring part with the mail moogle and everybody getting their mail ruined their celebration, so they attacked the mail moogle, who managed to somehow get out alive. But Serina chased it down and dragged it back so that it could take their replies to their families. Here are the letters to each of the caravaners, and their replies:

_Dear Silvon,_

_How are you doing, dear? Are you eating alright? Are you getting along well with the others? The last thing we need is quarreling among you guys! I guess we shouldn't worry about you too much, you are so responsible and dependable. I'll bet you are the only one keeping the others in place! Send us some supplies for our forges! And don't forget to come back now and then! We can make you and your friends some useful stuff!_

_Love,_

_Dah Maat (father) and Loo Kul (mother)_

----Silvon's reply:

_Dear Mother and Father,_

_I am doing quite well, and we have...well now we have enough food to keep us going for a while. However, a fellow caravaner by the name Garnos eats...a lot. I mean, A LOT. I fear we would die from starving rather than monsters with him along! We'll manage though, so don't worry. I'll be sure to visit sometime._

_Love,_

_Silvon_

----From Rikana's parents:

_Dear Rikana, _

_How is my big girl doing? I hope you aren't treating the others too poorly; I know how bad of a temper you got. Be sure to visit sometime soon, especially for your sister Sala Nah's birthday! She wants a gourd potato for her birthday!_

_Love,_

_Daen Keilei (father) and Noo Mee (mother)_

----Rikana's reply:

_Dear Mother and Father,_

_I am doing fine, stop asking. Don't worry, I am treating the others like crap. I hate everybody, they are all so stupid! Especially one named Garnos. He is such a pig!! He nearly got us all killed!! And Sala Nah can hope for nothing for her birthday._

_Sincerely,_

_Rikana_

----From Serina's parents:

_Hey Serina! How is life treating you? Find any myrrh yet? What is the trail like? Rough or easy-going? We all hope that you are not experiencing too much trouble. Did you feel that earthquake? There was a tsunami!! Man, it was awesome! We all wished you could hace seen it! Well, have fun now, dear!_

_Much love,_

_Belgano (father) and Harmia (mother)_

----Serina's reply:

_Dear Mom and Dad,_

_Life is treating me quite fine! Despite the fact that Bobo ran away at one point, and I was nearly killed by that tsunami, everything has been great! I mean, I found someone I quite like. I dunno if you would approve...because...well he's a Selkie. But that doesn't mean he's mean! He so nice and great and stuff...Well, I will be sure to visit and show you him soon!_

_With much more love than you (nyah nyah!),_

_Serina_

----From Garnos' parents:

_Dear Garnos,_

_Have you starved your caravan to death, yet? For once, we are able to have full plates for dinner, and there are actually leftovers!! I hope you are not irritating your mates to death, and do try to keep out of trouble! Visit...uh...every now and then, but dont' visit too frequently, you got only a year to get those drops of myrrh! Oh, and Paulie says, "I hope you die!" Isn't she so loving? Take care now!_

_From your loving parents,_

_Arion (father) and Christie (mother)_

----Garnos' reply:

_Dear Mommy and Daddy,_

_At one point, I did eat all the food in the wagon, but we got a ton more from this gigantic crab we fought and killed. Yay, crabby patties!! Anyways, it seems that the others are already irritated by my presence...except for this Selkie that pays too much attention to me. If you express love through yelling and physical abuse, then she is tripping over herself in love with me! And tell Paulie, "I love you too...not." Could you, like, poison her milk cup one day? That would make me very happy!_

_Love, _

_Garnos_

With the letters sent, the drop of myrrh collected, and their clothes washed, they headed back to the wagon. By now, it was very dark, and everybody was exhausted. They had Bobo pull the wagon over under the shelter of some tall trees next to the road, and they crowded in the wagon and slept deeply. Only Silvon and Ham stayed awake a bit longer to record all the happenings today in the thick book they had brought with them. So it was on this day in their Crystal Chronicles that they had collected their very first drop of myrrh, not to mention face a bunch of goblins and defeated their first boss creature.

--------------------

End of the longest chapter I have ever written!! Wow, this is like super long compared to the other chapters! Now, what happens next? The caravaners are growing into experienced warriors, and they still have 2 more drops of myrrh to collect. Will they visit home, as it is so close? Or will they continue forward, braving the dangers of the miasma swamped wilderness and collect another drop of myrrh? Read and review, and I shall update!


	5. Walking Through the Miasma Stream

Adventures of the Clavats and Selkies and Stuff

Chapter 5: Walking Through the Miasma Stream...Ah Forget it, RUN!!

Silvon woke to the warmth of the sun's rays on his cheeks...as well as Garnos rolling off his bunk and falling on top of him for like the 5th time.

"Dammit, Garnos!!" He gasped, winded _again._ He was sure he suffered internal organ damage this time. Garnos, still asleep, was seized by something in his nightmares, and he thrashed about as he tried to escape from the monster in his dream land.

"AAAHHHHH!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!! THE YELLOW MONSTER IN THE TUTU IS GONNA EAT ME!!!" It appears as though Garnos is dreaming of his demonic little sister, Paulie again. He had slapped Silvon around the face and kicked him several times before Silvon managed to wake him up.

"What the- oh...sorry Silvon," Garnos mumbled and he rolled off of Silvon...which was quite hard to do, as their wagon was quite crowded with the others in it. So he pretty much was a boulder rolling all over the others, waking them up and they cried out in pain and annoyance.

"What the- Garnos!! GET OFF OF ME!!"

"GARNOS!! STOP ROLLING AROUND!!"

"Ugh, get your feet out of my face..."

"Garnos- WHERE IS YOUR SHIRT??"

"Um, I don't sleep with a shirt on..."

"Why not??"

"'Cuz I had this nightmare once, my shirt turned evil and it was choking me, so I tore it to shreds in my sleep...my parents weren't too happy about that..."

"Oh..."

"Yea..."

"..."

Silvon sighed, rubbing his stinging cheeks, and stiffly rose and exited the wagon. The morning air was chilly in a sharp, fresh way. He breathed deeply, then went over to Bobo, who was picketed on a patch of what used to be freshly growing grass. The grass wasn't there anymore, and the area stunk of poo.

"God, you are such a stinky and disgusting creature...BUT we all love you very much!" He hastily said as Bobo looked as though he was going to run away again. Silvon led him over to the wagon and hitched him to the tongue. The others were cleaning up and getting ready for the new day. Rikana poked her head out of the wagon.

"Why are you all ready to go? Aren't we going to have breakfast or something?" She called out.

"Oh yea, forgot about that...yea, I guess we will have a quick one, but I want to leave as soon as possible. I don't think all the goblins that captured Garnos have all been killed by the tsunami, and they will want revenge, so I want to get out of here a quickly as possible." Satisfied with that explanation, Rikana jumped off the wagon and hastily started a little cooking fire. Serina came out with some bread that Garnos had not scoffed amazingly, and Garnos was carrying some crab meat all packed into an airtight barrel. While Rikana was cooking the meat, Serina went out and got some greens, and they all had crabby patties!

_Somewhere down in the sea in the undersea city known as Bikini Bottom..._

Mr. Krabs was sitting as usual at his office table, counting his money while listening to the radio.

_"Good morning, Bikini Bottom! And here are your local coral news! It appears on the dry, deadly land above us the expedition led by the brave crab Montonely to inhabit the land above us has failed! The monster beings above us that like to turn the sea residents into canned food or gift shop items have kill Montonely, and as an insult to us, has turned poor old Montonely into...gasp, CRABBY PATTIES!!"_

Thud! Mr. Krabs fell off his chair with a gasp of shock and horror.

_"You heard me right! The humans have made their own Krabby Patties...but they are made with REAL CRAB!! We shall have a moment of silence in remembrance of the poor, brave giant crab who was unafraid to attempt the impossible..."_

Mr. Krabs eyes bulged and looked close to popping.

"SOMEONE STOLE ME IDEA OF KRABBY PATTIES?? MADE WITH REAL CRAB MEAT?? THEY ARE GOING TO STEAL ALL ME CUSTOMERS!!" He roared, the restaurant shaking and stuff, making Spongebob, who was just entering his office at that moment, stumble and fall.

"But, Mr. Krabs! That doesn't make sense!" Spongebob cried. "Everyone knows it's a death sentence to go above the waterline!"

"THEN HOW TO YE EXPLAIN THAT!??" They turned to see that the restaurant was completely empty; apparently they got the word about the new 'Krabby Patties' and how they were made with real crab meat. Everyone wanted one!

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Mr. Krabs yelled at the ceiling, while Spongebob looked on with a blank face.

_Back on the surface with our caravan..._

After the filling breakfast, Silvon kicked dirt over their campfire while Serina and the others prepared to continue on their journey. They all left, Serina sitting on the back as a rear guard, Silvon driving the wagon, and the other two walked on either side of Bobo. They traveled in this manner along the route, keeping a wary eye out for monsters, when they upon another caravan parked on the side of the road. It was a caravan of armored Lilties, who had a funny looking moogle with them too. They hailed Silvon and the others as they came up.

"Greetings to you! You must be the caravan from Riverki!" One of the Lilties called out. He was obviously the leader.

"AAHH!! WHO ARE-" Garnos began to scream, but Silvon cut him short with an elbow in the stomach.

"Hello there! Don't mind this one, he's a bit crazy," Silvon said, managing a small but strained smile. He gave Garnos a death glare when Garnos opened his mouth to protest. He remained silent. The leader Lilty look at them strangely, or at least gave Silvon the impression he was looking at them that way; the Lilty was wearing a full helmet, completely hiding his face, so Silvon was unsure of what was going on in the Lilty's mind.

"All is well, traveler! I take it that this is your first time as a crystal caravan?"

"Yes, in fact it is-"

"Yea, it is, why do you care?" Rikana jumped in abruptly. Silvon stifled an exasperated sigh and gently edged her aside.

"Watch your manners! I don't want anymore trouble!" He whispered fiercely in her ear. Rikana's green eyes burned into Silvon's.

"DON'T YOU BE TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!" She shouted, doing the hand on the hip and snapping motion thing in front of face and everything. The band of Lilties watched, nonplussed.

"Please, Rikana..."

"DON'T YOU 'PLEASE RIKANA' ME! WHO EVER MADE YOU LEADER OF THIS CARAVAN! HUH? THAT'S RIGHT, NOBODY, SO MOVE YOUR ASS OVER!" With that, she bumped Silvon out of the picture and into some prickly bushes with a powerful hip bump. Garnos giggled at Silvon, now stuck and held in place by the thorns of the bush that had caught onto his clothing. Serina ran over to help him out. There was a ripple of amusement among the Lilties, except for the leader, who seemed to be worried by this behaviour.

"Excuse, if that young man is not the leader, then who is?" The Lilty asked.

"As of now, I AM!!!" Rikana roared. "Why am I answering your stupid questions? I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOUR NAME!!"

"M-my, my apologies! I am Sol Racht! I am the leader of the caravan from Alfitaria! And to whom to I have the...uh...pleasure...of addressing?" The Lilty quickly responded, visibly shaken by the fierceness of the Selkie.

"I am Rikana, and don't you be forgetting that!" Rikana growled back. She spotted a fat Moogle wearing a funny outfit standing in front of the band of Lilties. "What the crap is that thing?"

"That is our moogle, Stiltzkin! Stiltzkin! Could you come over here?" The fat moogle waddled over.

"Greetings, you will not have to introduce yourself to me, you yelled your name so loud I'll wager the entire peninsula knows your name now," The moogle said quickly, cutting Rikana short as she opened her mouth to introduce herself. Stiltzkin looked the caravan over quickly.

"Where is your moogle? Every caravan needs a good moogle to educate the caravan on the monsters in the area."

"Don't worry, we got one. HAM!! GET YOUR LAZY BUTT OUT HERE!" Ham, his fur ruffled and looking quick disgruntled, flapped out of the wagon and dropped down next to Rikana, in front of Stiltzkin.

"What do you all want now, kupo?" Ham said irritably. He had been taking a nap to relieve himself of the monstrous headache he got from Rikana's constant yelling. Sol was getting more and more worried about how things were going. This caravan was not ready for the dangers and obstacles in the roads ahead, it was too inexperienced and...mismatched. No on seemed to get along with each other, and the days must be long and stressful, especially with that Selkie around.

"Stiltzkin, why don't you instruct these fellow travelers in some combat skills and things like that? I am sure they will need it." Stiltzkin was in fact thinking the same thing, and was about to agree when Rikana kicked Stiltzkin like a furry football and the moogle went sailling through the air to disappear in the thick foilage of a tree.

"WE DON'T NEED ANY HELP FROM YOU MORONS!!" Rikana screamed, and Ham quickly went back inside the wagon to plug his ears with the screwed up corners of some blankets. "COME ON, SERINA, GARNOS, SILVON, LETS GO!" She went over and with a single, powerful heave, she pulled Silvon out of the thorny bush, ripping his clothes and scratching him up a bit in the process. Silvon, furious, landed nimbly on his feet and, a blur of motion, he struck Rikana in the back of the head with his racket, knocking her unconscious.

"Sorry for that Rikana, BUT YOU DESERVED IT!!" He panted. Dumping her body in the wagon, he walked over to Sol again, who was completely freaking out over how terribly this caravan got along with each other. "You say you hail from Alfitaria? Where is that? I have not heard of that place before."

"It is a city! A fine city beyond the miasma stream!"

"Miasma stream?"

"Yes, a great current of miasma that divides the world into sections!"

"A great big current of miasma!! How did you ever get through?"

"Our chalice of course. The streams possess certain elements, and if your chalice hold the correct element, then you can pass through. Have the wrong element, and you can't pass."

"Really? Hm...What is the element of this miasma stream thing you speak of?"

"I believe it was water. But that is only for the stream cutting your peninsula off from the rest of the world. I do not know of the others yet."

"How would I change the element of my chalice?"

"You drop your chalice on hotspots..."

Yes, this extremely boring conservation went on for a long time, Silvon asking all these questions about the miasma stream and elements and crap like that, while the others got bored and sleepy from all the smart talking going on, but they did not interrupt it. The information Silvon was obtaining was vital to their continued survival in the miasma swamped worled. I mean, someone's got to get all the boring information, and it seems only the smart people go through the trouble of learning it. You should go and hug a smart person today, appreciate them for learning extremely boring yet vital and important things about the world, because if it wasn't for them, your would be bored out of your mind trying to listen to the boring people yourself. Sol seemed pleased and relieved that there was at least one smart person in this seemingly doomed caravan, and he even showed Silvon a water hotspot and changed the chalice's element to water.

They finally started moving when they got back, and Sol led the caravans to the miasma stream, where he left Riverki's caravan and went off to continue his hunt for myrrh. By now, Rikana had recovered, but amazingly kept quiet. Everyone piled out of the wagon and stared at the sight before them. A single, jagged strip of land was the only bridge through the miasma stream to another section of the world. The miasma was thickest at the middle of the bridge, arching over and curling around it, thick and tinted with blue. They could see more arches of miasma flowing in the distance, and they could hear the howl of the stream. Black, dead trunks of incredibly tall trees stuck out of the seemingly bottomless area around the bridge, the sky shrouded with a blue fog, the ground below, if there was a ground, hidden under a thick, white cloud of miasma. They crowded close to their chalice, which glowed an intense blue, and they moved over to a stone sign.

_'Those who create discord with the element herein shall not pass.'_

This is was the sign read.

"Ar-are you su-sure you got th-the right element?" Garnos asked shakily, his knees knocking together and everything. What a weenie.

"I am absolutely certain. Look, the miasma is blue, and our chalice is glowing blue! So we know we got the right element!" Silvon tried to reassure Garnos, but Garnos still looked like someone was about to blow him into bits with a giant ball of magma or something. He clung to Silvon's arm, the other arm occupied by Serina, and they both proceeded to cut off the blood circulation in Silvon's arms.

"Quit it you two! Stoppit!!" He cried, but they simply ignored him and tightened their grips. Gritting his teeth, Silvon moved to cross the bridge, with Rikana leading Bobo trailing behind. As they neared the part of the bridge where the miasma flowed thickest, the chalice glowed even more intensely blue, the howl of the miasma became a higher-pitched whistling howl that dominated their hearing, a purply cloud hovered in front of the travelers, and an invisible force seemed to be pushing them back. The push was slight at first, but as they kept on moving forward, the push grew stronger.

"I th-think we should go back now!" Garnos yelled over the howl of the miasma stream. Silvon merely shook his head, and pressed forwards. Even Rikana moved in closer behind Silvon as they drew closer to the middle of the bridge. As they entered the thickest part of the miasma stream, the purple cloud in front of everyone streamed behind them, white wisps of the force flickering around them, the push grew incredibly strong, and the whistling howl shrieked in their ears. The travelers packed as closely as possible behind Silvon. The white wisps suddenly flared up into a great, blinding white shield thing in front of them, the purple foggy stuff grew thicker around them, the shrieking howl intensified. Garnos yelled in terror as the force shield thing exploded outwards. Everyone ducked and covered their heads except for Silvon, who watched in amazement as the usually invisible shield of the crystal's influence that protected them solidified. The miasma's howl instantly dropped in volume as it raced past over the surface of the shield.

"Amazing..." Silvon muttered. He turned back to the others. "Quit cowering there! Let's get mov-" Silvon was cut off as Garnos tackled him, wresting the chalice from his grasp.

"EVERYBODY RUN!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!" Garnos began to run ahead, holding the chalice high above his head, but Silvon managed to snatch it off his head and tackle Garnos.

"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE IF YOU GO AHEAD AND RUN AWAY WITH THE CHALICE LIKE THAT!!" Silvon roared at Garnos. The others quickly began scrambling forward. The miasma stream, however, seemed to sense that the caravan was panicking at the most dangerous spot of the crossing. It grew stronger and began to push the caravan back at an angle; it would drive them off the side of the bridge before they reached the end they started at.

"OOOOMAAAAAGAAAAAWWD!!!! WE ARE REALLY GOING TO DIE IN SLOW MOTION THIS TIME!!" Garnos shrieked as they began slowly sliding back. Silvon was about to reply when he was cut off by a piercing scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I'M GONNA DIE IN SLOW MOTION FIRST!!!" Silvon spun around to see that Serina was indeed on the verge of falling off. In fact, she would have fallen off into her doom if it weren't for some random sword stuck in the ground there. Serina was hanging onto it, her feet kicking, screaming her head off.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!"

"I'M COMING SERINA!!!" Silvon shoved the chalice into Rikana's hands, snatched her personal crystal she still had from when the narrator gave it to her, stuffed that in his pocket and ran foward, grabbing Serina's hands just as her grip was beginning to fail. Grunting, he managed to heave Serina up and back onto land, where she clung to the ground, but Silvon himself began to topple over the edge.

"SILVON!!!" Serina screamed as Silvon grabbed at the sword to stop falling. The sword, however, came out of the ground, and Silvon went over the edge, still holding the sword.

"SIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLVOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!" Everybody screamed. Serina huddled over the edge, bracing herself against the force of the miasma stream, looking madly for Silvon.

"SIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLVOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!" She cried into the vast emptiness. Garnos joined her.

"SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLVOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!" Garnos yelled, drawing Silvon's name out annoyingly long and stuff.

"I'm right here, what do you want??" Serina and Garnos started with fright as they heard Silvon bark at them directly below them. Craning their necks down, they saw Silvon had slammed the sword into the side of the bridge and was hanging from it. He stared at them irritably.

"Well, don't just stand there, gaping at me like a bunch of goldfish! Help me up!!" Garnos obliged with a will, heaving Silvon up in the air and back and sent him crashing into the side of the wagon.

"Ow."

"Whoops, sorry."

"No matter, JUST RUN!!" Silvon grabbed the chalice from Rikana, everybody crowded close, and they all ran the rest of the way to the other side of the bridge.

"We made it!!" Garnos jumped around happily...but only Garnos. Everybody else was looking quite pissed. Garnos looked at them quizzically.

"What's the matter with you all? We made it!"

"No we didn't..." Silvon growled. Just then Garnos noticed the surroundings looked very familiar.

"WE JUST RAN BACK THE WAY WE CAME!!" Rikana shouted, furious.

"Oh..." Garnos wilted under Rikana's furious gaze.

"YOU IDIOT, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH RIKANA!!" Silvon shouted. "We will just have to go back-"

"NOOO, I DON'T WANNA GO BACK THROUGH THAT!!"

Well, just to cut this scene short, as they would continue yelling in this manner for quite a while, Rikana beat Garnos up, gagged him and tied him up, slung him over her shoulder, and she carried him in this manner as they _ran_ back and through the miasma stream and across the bridge to the right end. The caravan from Riverki have just crossed their very first miasma stream; they are now in a land known as Iron Mine Downs.

"WOOTAGE!!" Silvon whooped, jumping around excitedly, punching his fists in the air. "We made it, we made it, we made it, we made it!" Serina smiled weakly, Rikana harrumphed as she untied and ungagged Garnos, and-

_Bump!_

Garnos...well he just fainted.

--------------------

_Some time later, in the little town called Marr's Pass..._

"Ughhh...I feel like crap..."

Garnos opened his eyes, but only some blearly, unfocused vision of something wooden met his eyes. He rubbed them, blinked and found he was staring at the roof of the interior of the wagon. Sitting up and rubbing his head, he looked around the inside of the wagon. He found Rikana laying at the other end of the wagon, sleeping. He crawled over and peered into her face. He hesitated, wondering if he should do it. He thought about it for a while. He really wanted to do it, but how would Rikana react to it? He sat back, staring at her face, which was for now calm and peaceful. He gnawed at his nails, his insides burning with indecision. Should he do it? Should he not? Would she kill him for it? Not if he ran quick enough...

He smiled. He would do it. He watched Rikana carefully, to make sure she was not about to wake up. Then he leaned over...reached behind...pulled out a jar of ink...dipped his finger in it...and was about to start drawing all over her face when-

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Garnos started with suprise, fumbling with the jar of ink, trying not to drop it. He failed miserably. It dropped on Rikana, and spilled all over her head. Rikana spluttered as she woke abruptly. Garnos' heart skipped several beats.

"What the-" Rikana began to say, but was cut off as Garnos began rubbing his hands all over her face, smearing the ink over her cheeks and making little stripes and patterns and shading under her eyes and stuff. Then he ran.

He ran for his freaking life.

He ran faster as he heard the tigeress behind him roar with fury at what he had done. He heard her swift feet behind him, catching up all too quickly.

He jumped over a table laden with stuff for sale; the tigeress did not bother jumping over it. She crashed right through it, the mechants' screams in his ears. The items for sale rained down around him and peppered his feet, one even bouncing off his heel, but he did not stop.

He would die if he stopped.

Ham, who had tried to warn Garnos not to draw all over Rikana's face, perched on the end of the wagon, next to a dumbfounded Serina. Serina had just been sitting there when Garnos ran out, his hands covered in ink, and Rikana had pretty much exploded out of the wagon, chasing after him. She watched with a blank face as Garnos ran 'round and 'round, trying to shake Rikana, but Rikana was in Kill-Garnos mode, hot on his heels. Garnos attempted to scale the gigantic crystal in the center of the town, when Rikana tackled him, and dragged him back in the wagon. From outside the wagon, Serina and Ham could hear the clanging of cooking utensils and the wacks of Rikana's racket, as well as Garnos' pitiful wails as Rikana gave him a beating to remember for the rest of his life.

"**HOW DARE YOU** (whack!) **SPILL INK** (whack whack!) **ALL OVER MY** (clang bong!) **FACE!!**"

"Rikana, stoppit!! I'm sorry-"

"**YOU'RE NOT SORRY!! **(whack whack clang!) **IF YOU WERE SORRY YOU WOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!**"

"We are going to need to find Silvon to stop this," Serina whispered to Ham as she slid off the wagon. Ham merely nodded in agreement and fluttered off to find Silvon. After a bit of running around, Serina stopped, panting heavily in front of the giant crystal in the middle of town, wondering where Silvon went. Ham came flapping frantically back some time later.

"Quick, Serina!! Come with me!! Silvon's in trouble!!" He panted.

"Wha- in trouble?? But, wait, what about Garnos?"

"He will have to fend for himself, come quickly!! Silvon is under attack by some monsters!!!"

--------------------

Haha, this concludes my fifth chapter! Hope you liked it lots! Silvon's under attack!! Will Serina save him in time to save Garnos too? Will Garnos ever survive Rikana's punishment? Will Mr. Krabs get his customers back? Please review, and I will update!


	6. The Mushroom Forest

Adventures of the Clavats and Selkies and Stuff

Chapter 6: The Mushroom Forest...

After managing to cross their very first miasma stream, our Riverki caravan had stopped in a little town called Marr's Pass in the land known as Iron Mine Downs. Awaking to find Rikana sleeping in the wagon, completely vulnerable to pranks, Garnos was about to draw all over her face with some ink when, startled by Ham, spilled it all over her. After a futile attempt to flee for his life, Garnos was caught and dragged into the wagon by Rikana, where she began beating him with all manners of things; pots and pans, other cooking utensils that I can't think of at the moment, and her racket. To stop the madness, Serina and Ham went separate ways in Marr's Pass, looking for Silvon, whom the entire group have sorta of agreed in their own, silent unofficial way was the leader. Serina could not find him, but Ham came flying back swiftly, telling her he was in trouble!

"Quick, Serina!! Come with me!! Silvon's in trouble!!" He panted.

"Wha- in trouble?? But wait, what about Garnos?"

"He will have to fend for himself, come quickly!! Silvon is under attack by some monsters!!!"

"Monster?? Where?? Lead on!!" Serina sprinted to the wagon, snatched Rikana's personal crystal, which was lying out of harm's way on the wagon seat, and proceeded to run on, out of Marr's Pass, although she just told Ham to lead.

"Serina stop!! You're going the wrong way!!" Ham called out. Serina had disappeared around the corner, and he worried she did not hear. But she came running back around the corner, scooped the tired moogle up in her arms, and with him directing her, she ran to Silvon's aid.

--------------------

Silvon had been out exploring, looking for another likely spot to find a myrrh tree. While Garnos had been unconscious and everything, Silvon decided his caravan needed rest after their harrowing cross of the miasma stream. But while waiting for Garnos to recover, he had grown restless, and, receiving another personal crystal from the _ever_ generous narrator, he wandered off. He ended up in a strange forest of gigantic mushrooms. He had stopped to examine the sign that said, '_The Mushroom Forest: WARNING!! Monsters lurk within!!'_ when he was attacked by just what the sign was warning him of, a giant marshmallow!!

"What the-" Silvon was cut off as a giant marshmallow appeared out of nowhere and swallowed him whole.

_-Hahahahahahahahaa!! I'm just kidding. That didn't really happen._

POOF. The man-eating marshmallow disappeared, leaving a very shaken and confused Silvon, bits of sticky marshmallow stuck in his silver hair. He looked around with big eyes.

"What is going on-"

_-What I meant to say, was that he was attacked by those annoying flying one-eyed things...gosh I can never remember what they are called..._

ZAP!! Silvon gasped with pain as the flying monster zapped him with its single eye. Silvon found his movements were suddenly sluggish and slow, and he struggled to move as electricity sparked around the monster's wings, indicating it was going to cast some sort of thunder spell on him. He managed just to get out of the way as the air behind him suddenly exploded in a ball of electricity. The monster turned and swooped down on Silvon, claws ready to do some serious damage. Silvon braced himself...but the impact never came. The flying monster gave a squeal of pain as Serina, charging out of nowhere, tackled it, slashing at it with her blade.

"Serina, where did you come from??" Silvon shouted, struggling to shake off the effects of the hex the monster put on him. However, Serina did not seem to hear him, intent on decapitating the monster, though she could not find where the neck was. So instead, she just hacked at it, blood spraying everywhere. There was a loud noise, like a large cork being popped out of a giant glass bottle, and a glowing green, softball-sized missile struck Serina squarely in the back. She cried out and fell, while the monster flapped frantically away from her.

Silvon quickly felled the flying monster with a well-aimed energy missile from his racket, then he turned his attention to what shot Serina. It was a flower monster of some sort, what would be the blossom was the gaping mouth of it, it had two stubby legs, and pinkish, leafy appendages that looked like wings. It squawked and shot another missile at him. Easily dodging it, Silvon felt the slowing effects of the hex leaving him, and he moved like lightening; he charged the flower monster, and dealt it 3 swift, powerful wacks. The monster keeled over dead. Silvon ran over to Serina, who was stunned. Serina sat up slowly, rubbing her back.

"Man, that hurt...are you alright, Silvon?" Silvon nodded.

"I'm alright, though I don't think I would be able to say that if you didn't come in like you did. It could have been a lot worse!"

"Yea, I guess...What were you doing out here anyways?"

"I was looking for a probable place our second myrrh tree might be, and once everyone was awake and rested, I was going to take you all there. But we will have to wait a little bit longer for your back to get better." Serina looked outraged by this.

"We will NOT have to wait for me, no way!! I can still fight just fine!!" Silvon looked at her in disbelief.

"I think not!! Your back is injured, and we can't fight without you, and we certainly won't risk you getting killed while you try to fight with an injured back!!"

"I AM PERFECTLY BATTLE-WORTHY RIGHT NOW!!" Serina roared. Silvon jumped back, then, giving up, turned to leave.

"Very well, come along now, we will have to get the others." He walked a few paces, stopped and turned back to Serina, who was still sitting on the ground, her face tight and grim. "Well...? Are you just going to sit there?"

"YES!!"

Silvon blinked. He was certainly not expecting that. "Get up!!"

"Uh...I'm trying!!" Silvon watched as Serina's legs twitched, but everytime she moved them, she grimaced with pain.

"Do you-"

"I AM PERFECTLY FINE THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!" Silvon sighed and walked over to Serina.

"No you are not, and you need help NO COMPLAINING OR EXCUSES!!!" He roared as Serina was about to object. Serina grumbled, and allowed him to help her up. "Anyways, why did you come looking for me? Is everyone ready?"

"No, I came to tell you Rikana is trying to kill Garnos by beating him to death." Silvon's face went blank.

"Oww!!! HEY, WHA- owowowowowowowow OWWWW!!! Where are you going??" Serina yelped as Silvon promptly dropped her and sprinted away to Marr's Pass.

"Ham, help Serina," Silvon said quickly to Ham while passing him. Ham waddled up to Serina and looked at her doubtfully.

"Now how's a wee moogle gonna help a fatty like you?" He asked insolently. He dodged a rock Serina threw at him.

"Shut it, you big useless ball of puff!"

--------------------

Silvon ran back to find that the violence had become so intense, the townsfolk and even some armored Lilties had run in to separate Rikana and poor Garnos. Silvon started with alarm upon the sight of Rikana; she had ink stripes all over her face, and in her current rage, she looked like a demonic tiger. A pair of armored Lilties restrained her, while another two menaced her with their pikes. Behind the two menacing Lilties was a group of the townsfolk crowded around someone on the ground. Their serious muttering and fearful glances at Rikana made Silvon's heart sink with dread. Was he too late?

"Excuse me, coming through," Silvon edged his way through the crowd, and he stopped dumbfounded. Garnos lay on the ground, but Silvon did not see any injuries...until a doctor came in and gently lifted Garnos' shirt. Silvon gasped and tottered unsteadily. Garnos' entire body was covered in big round bruises from pots and pans and welts from Rikana's racket. Silvon bent down, and tried to lift his head, but put it down quickly when he felt how lumpy it was; Garnos' head was also covered in boo-boo's from Rikana hitting him over the head with various hard objects. Garnos' eyes fluttered open.

"Si-Silvon...?" He drawled uncertainly. "D-Du-Duuuuuuude...get th-that crazy chick awa-away from me..." Garnos trailed off as he promptly passed out. The doctor shook his head.

"It appears that this poor boy may have some broken bones, and with all the damage he took to his head, he may even have some brain damage!"

"Nope, he doesn't have brain damage," Silvon simply said. Of course, the doctor wouldn't know that Garnos had a thick head of steel, and it was pointless worrying over some lumps on the head. Rather, if you were going to really hurt Garnos, the head is the last thing you would aim for. The doctor looked at Silvon doubtfully, then, shaking his head, motioned to some people with a stretcher.

"I think it will be best to leave him with me to fully diagnose all of his injuries and ensure a full recovery," the doctor said, all professional like, talking in a way that would make no sense to most people.

"How much would that cost, and how will that take?"

"Oh...several hundred coins and a few months already for his broken ribs...what are you doing??" Silvon jumped foward and felt Garnos' ribcage; his sensitive hands did not feel a single bone out of place. Garnos stirred slightly, and Silvon patted his face gently.

"Hey...do you feel like you broke anything?" Silvon gently poked Garnos' ribs and limbs. Garnos shook his head weakly.

"No...just lots and lots of lumps everywhere..." Garnos trailed off again. Silvon glared at the doctor who shifted his weight nervously.

"He doesn't have any broken bones...are you trying to scam us?" Silvon asked, his voice quiet but dangerous.

"O-oh but he must have some fractures of some sort from the beating he received! You cannot tell, you are not a doctor!" The doctor spluttered. Silvon narrowed his eyes.

"HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY BROKEN BONES OR FRACTURES!! I WOULDN'T BEAT HIM THAT HARD!!!" Rikana shrieked insanely behind the wall of armored Lilties. Although Silvon snorted with disbelief inside, he glared meaningfully at the doctor at this. He just then realized that the doctor's coat was just an oversized, dirty white shirt. He smelled a liar as well a scammer.

"The lady is obviously insane and doesn't know what she-" The 'doctor' began, but was cut off by Silvon's fist crashing into his face. The townsfolk gasped and back away as Silvon walked over to the 'doctor', who flew a fair distance back by the force of the blow.

"You're not a real doctor," Silvon snarled. "You're a fake, cheating people out of their money, maybe at the cost of someone's life!" This caught the attention of the Lilties, and they left Rikana to crowd around the 'doctor'. One of them seemed to recognize him.

"Hey!! You were the one who was supposed to cure my brother of the effects of the poison that monster left on him! He's dead because of you!!!" The other Lilties growled and seized the scammer. Some of them pulled out their pikes. The man looked at them frightened.

"Quick, let's get out of here!" Silvon carefully picked Garnos up and nudged Rikana towards their wagon. He carefully laid Garnos on some blankets as Rikana jumped on the driver's seat. She grabbed Bobo's reins and waited for Silvon's word to go. She could hear the false doctor's screams in the background. She waited for a while, then looked back quizically.

"Aren't you ready yet Silvon? Silvon?" She looked around the wagon, but he wasn't there, only Garnos, unconscious. She ran over to the crowd where the Lilties were punishing the fake doctor by beating him slowly to death (man that sucks!) and spotted Silvon among them. Sighing, she grabbed Silvon's arm and tried to pull him away, but Silvon resisted, kicking at the yelling man. Getting impatient, Rikana picked Silvon up around the middle, carried him over to the wagon, where she threw him bodily in. She raced around to the driver's seat and the wagon was on it's way, out of Marr's Pass and back where they came from.

--------------------

Serina had located a cure stone that the one-eyed winged monster had dropped without her noticing, and she managed to make her back all better again. She somehow knew that Silvon wanted to explore the Mushroom Forest for the myrrh tree next, she would have done the same; the Mushroom Forest somehow seemed an ideal place to find a myrrh tree, though it was probably guarded by another yummy giant crab or a giant man-eating marshmallow or something...She then wondered why most monsters had to be giant. Weren't there any petite monsters? I mean, instead of saying, 'it was guarded by a GIANT dragon', was it a crime to say instead, 'it was guarded by a TINY dragon'? Or maybe even a 'disco dragon'! Man that would be cool! You know, you got the whole afro and sunglasses thing going on and the dragon's all like, 'groovy!'

You know?

You don't, don't you?

...Just forget it...

Anyways, she was thinking these weird thoughts about disco dragons with afros when Bobo came along, pulling the wagon up to her. Of course, she was so absorbed in the dragon saying 'groovy' that she didn't notice it until Rikana jumped down and slapped her across the head. Rubbing her head, she looked up at Rikana...

**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"** Serina ran for the cover of the undergrowth, screaming.

Rikana blinked. She stood there stupidly, scratching her head, then remembered that she still had those scary ink stripes and stuff on her face. She walked over to their water barrel, collected some water in a bowl, and proceeded to do the long process of rubbing out the ink from her skin. Silvon looked out, alarmed by Serina's scream. He looked about bewildered, then, spotting Rikana, jumped off the wagon and came to her.

"What's going on here? It sounded like someone was dying!!" Rikana rolled her eyes, then began splashing her face frantically as a drop of ink-laden water rolled into it.

"She -splash- saw my face -splash splash- and was kinda -splash- scared by it -splash splash splash- HOLY CRAP THIS STINGS LIKE A MOTHER!!!" Rikana screamed as she splashed even more frantically, drenching Silvon in the process. She, however, didn't get wet. Her fatness of a hair was soaking it up again. Silvon backed away, both cautious and confused.

"'Stings like a mother'? Mothers sting people?" He dodged the bowl Rikana threw at him.

"JUST GO LOOK FOR HER IN THE MUSHROOM FOREST!!" She screeched before dunking her face into the barrel of water. Silvon was all too glad to leave the crazy Selkie behind, but he remembered Garnos, and wondered if he would be dead the next time he saw him. He suddenly spotted that cure stone Serina used on him on the ground; she must have accidently dropped when she ran off. Picking it up, he went into the wagon where Garnos lay. He examined the stone, unsure of how to tap into its powers.

He shook it. Nothing happened.

He felt all over its cool, smooth surface, looking for some button or something that would gain him access to the healing power that pulsed beneath its surface.

He licked it, and decided it didn't taste like ice cream.

He listened to it, but it didn't say anything.

He sniffed it. By now the stone was getting weirded out by this guy. It wished it was back with that nice, golden-haired Clavat girl. Someone who actually KNEW how to activate it.

Finally, Silvon was getting very irritated with the stone, for it refused to show him how to make it work. He chucked it at Garnos, and Garnos came awake with a yelp as it bounced off his head.

"AAAHHH!! NO, RIKANA! STOP!!!!" He became that rolling boulder again like in chapter 5, rolling all over the place, knocking stuff off the walls and squishing Silvon repeatedly.

"Garnos-GARNOS!!! STOP!!! IT'S ONLY ME, SILVON!!" Silvon yelled as Garnos began squishing him up against the wall again. Garnos immediately stopped and whooped with joy.

"Yay, Silvon!! You don't know how happy I am to see you, buddy! Yes, I'M SAVED!!!" Garnos gave Silvon a tackling hug, held tight, and wouldn't let go.

"Garnos, please get off..."

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE!!!" The two boys jumped with fright as Rikana stormed in. She didn't look as scary as she got all the ink stuff off, but the expression on her face wasn't exactly happy either. Rather, it looked like she was going to kill someone again.

"My...my dolly..." Rikana gasped, and Garnos and Silvon followed her gaze to the wagon floor. There lay a stuffed chocobo bird doll thing, except it was flattened by Garnos' fatness, and an eye was popped out with stuffing coming out of it. Rikana went over and touched it lightly.

"Uh, you're on your own," Silvon said as he quickly pushed Garnos off of him and ran away, in the general direction Serina went. Garnos was about to run after him, but was seized by the scruff of the neck by a strong hand. He was face to face with Rikana again, her vengeful green burning eyes boring into his.

"**YOU WILL PAY IN BLOOD FOR THIS,**" She thundered, her voice all freakishly deep and everything.

"Mommy!" Garnos whimpered.

--------------------

Silvon was glad he had remembered to bring his racket. All manner of monsters had been attacking him while he tried to follow Serina's trail. He was pretty sure by the time he found Serina, he would have killed every living thing in the Mushroom Forest. Dealing another crushing blow to the skull of yet another flying one-eyed monster, he pressed on, following Serina's trail carefully. He wondered why it seemed she never encountered a single monster in her flight through the Mushroom Forest. He also wondered how far she had gone in, and if she ran into any trouble yet. If she had, he would be there to save her, he decided.

He had run along like this when he noticed a foul smell that was faint before was getting steadily stronger and stronger. He glanced down, and found Serina's trail continued to go straight in towards the source of the smell. He was still running looking down at the ground, when-

_Wham!_ He ran straight into something thick and slimy that shot up from the ground before him. He bounced off of it and landed painfully on his back. Completely winded, he stared at the green, slimy tentacle-ish that wriggled around before disappearing into the ground. With the distraction out of the way, he had a clear view of Serina further ahead...and the creepy-looking gigantic monster she was fighting. She ran out of the way as the creature spewed forth something incredibly foul smelling from its mouth. He recognized it as a malboro, a monster that he had once thought existed only in the wild imaginations of his village; he didn't think that anymore. Its many eyes focused intently on Serina, unaware of Silvon's presence, even though he just ran into one of its tentacle-like appendages.

Recovered somewhat, Silvon immediately ran forward to help...only to run smack into another of the monster's tentacles. This time he fell back stunned. Serina, however, easily avoided them and slashed viciously at them. Dodging another of the monster's breath attack, she leapt foward, slashing and hacking. The creature made a weird rumbling noise of anger and pain, and it tried to cast a slowing-hex on Serina...but everything it did was completely useless. The battle went on for quite a while, Silvon had run into the thing's tentacles 7 more times and, getting pissed and fustrated at the fact that this was keeping him out of the battle, he just sat with his back against one of the giant mushrooms and watched Serina kick the malboro's butt. Garnos came running along some time after Silvon arrived; apparently he escaped Rikana's wrath somehow. Because he was unarmed, he sat by Silvon to watch the fight, and occasionally threw a rock to make himself feel useful. Rikana came towards the end of the fight with the wagon and Bobo, and as she jumped off the wagon with pure murder on her face, Garnos sprinted towards the monster with a squeak of fright.

"GARNOS, GET BACK HERE!!!!" She roared, her racket in one hand, Garnos' blade in the other, and she tore off after Garnos. Weaving between, under, over, and diagonally up and down and around the monster's tentacles (don't ask me how he did this; use your imagination!!), Garnos navigated his way straight towards the malboro. When he was inches away from being eaten, he wheeled off course and made his way around the creature. The malboro stood still, slightly puzzled. His bewilderment was quickly put to an end, in the form of a raging Wolfie Selkie practically glowing with furious energy and power, wielding a weapon in either hand.

It was over quickly. Pretty much, the malboro was demolished, destroyed, dominated, damaged, and all those other words starting with 'd' in a blinding explosion of the mixture of power and rage. All that was left of the malboro was some smoldering slimy stuff on the ground along with a great deal of purple-black blood. Rikana stumped back to the wagon, where Garnos was still running around in circles, squeaking in fright. Silvon sat there, mouth wide open, and Serina was still back standing among the remains of the malboro, completely soaked in its blood and stunned. Rikana tossed the racket and blade, both of which were broken, on the wagon and climbed in moodily.

"Well don't just sit there catching flies with your mouth! Let's get this wagon moving! Let's find the myrrh tree or something!!" She snapped at Silvon. "And you, stop running around like an idiot!!" She threw a well-aimed rock at Garnos' head as he ran past, making him fall with a squeal of pain. Serina came over, climbed into the wagon, sat next to Rikana, and just stared at her.

"What?"

"Remind me never to make you mad," Silvon recovered enough to grunt.

"Hear hear," Garnos whimpered from the ground.

--------------------

They went along the way past the malboro's remains and found the myrrh tree there, along with the rock underneath to put the chalice on. Despite much whining and complaining from Garnos, Silvon placed the chalice on the rock himself, as to make sure the tree would not miss and waste a precious drop of myrrh. The caravan from Riverki have collected their second drop of myrrh! As usual, they began to celebrate, and they attacked the poor mail moogle who came along and ruined their celebration. I wonder if the same moogle will come when they collect their third drop of myrrh...maybe a different one will come, or none at all!

Here are the letters to each of the caravaners, and their replies:

_Dear Silvon, _

_Hey son! How is everything going? I hope that Garnos boy isn't giving you too much trouble. How is your quest for myrrh going? Good I hope! Not to put pressure or anything on you, but our continued existence relies heavily on your quest for myrrh. If you don't bring back any for our crystal, we will all die! Again, not to put any kind of pressure on you. Please visit us soon!_

_Love,_

_Dah Maat_

----Silvon's reply:

_Dear Father,_

_Hello father! Everything is going...uh...fine, yea! Just fine! Everybody was happy and Rikana did NOT try to murder Garnos several times...ahem! Yea, I realize the incredibly heavy pressure of our duties to keep our village alive by collecting myrrh. You're right! No pressure at all...sigh...We will be sure to pay you a visit sometime or later._

_Love,_

_Silvon_

----From Rikana's father:

_Dear Rikana,_

_Hello, my big girl! How are you doing? I hope you are getting along with the others, and I sure do hope you are not trying to kill any of them. Last thing we need is someone jeopardizing our future by killing off the caravan members! Ah well...perhaps I am worrying about nothing, eh? I trust you are not trying to physically or mentally harm anyone. Sala Nah's birthday is in a few days! Be sure to come back with a gourd potato for her!_

_Love,_

_Daen Keilei_

----Rikana's reply:

_Dear Father,_

_I am doing fine!! I thought I told you in the last letter to stop asking!! Uh...NO I am not TRYING to kill ANYONE...AND I am not writing LIKE THIS because I AM not TRYING to supress MY nonexistant FEELINGS OF EXTREME RAGE FOR A CERTAIN SOMEBODY!!!_

_...Tell the brat to start practicing her pathetic fake crying now, because I doubt I will come home, and if I do, I won't bring her anything._

_From Rikana_

----From Serina's father:

_Dearest Serina,_

_Great news! Your mother has decided to stop quarreling with the narrator, and the narrator has fixed up our cow! It is no longer constipated! Hooray! Have you slain any big monsters of late? I'll bet you've slain so many monsters you lost count! Come home soon, the animals miss you!_

_With incomparable love,_

_Belgano_

----Serina's reply:

_Dearest Father,_

_Has mother really stopped fighting with the narrator? Hooray! Hopefully the cow will not gain any bladder infections or diseases from all those times it was constipated by an other-worldly force. I would have slain a giant malboro thing if that stupid Selkie didn't come in and steal my kill!! AAAAAARRRRRRGH!!!! Oh well, I will be sure to find another one and kill that one just for you! I will be back soon, especially for my favorite cow, Selena!_

_With still more love than you,_

_Serina_

----From Garnos' father:

_Garnos,_

_Hello son, how are you doing? Have any of you died yet from a mysterious case of starving? I hope not, but then again I wouldn't be suprised if someone did. Are you keeping yourself out of trouble, especially with that female Selkie? Remember back at home when you were younger, you would always somehow get on her nerves and she would start attacking you? Well, you are not in the safety of our home now, and you must fend for yourself. Please, keep out of trouble or she might end up murdering you...oh and Paulie says to this, "I hope she does kill you! It would make the world a lot better for all of us!" She is such a lovely girl!_

_Take care,_

_Arion_

----Garnos' reply:

_Father,_

_I am doing...ok I guess...No, no one has died yet, but I think one of us will be dead soon...(man I hope I can find a way to get rid of that maniac of a Selkie!). Uhh, no, no I not getting into trouble with...uhh...THAT SELKIE. She's pretty cool I guess...(when she's not mad). I kind of figured out that my life is in constant danger with her out here..._

_...Guess what? I have a new goal in life. I plan to somehow harness the powers of Rikana's rage so that I might be able to direct it and target its terrible wrath on a certain person...like Paulie! Don't worry, her end will be quick!_

_You too,_

_Garnos_

With the letters sent, they piled back into the wagon and headed for the nearest spring, where Serina especially and the others washed themselves and did their laundry. They refreshed their stores of drinking water, set camp and ate and drank their fill. As it got dark, they gathered around the thick journal book thing to record all of the happenings that day before they went to sleep a deep, dreamless sleep (except maybe for Garnos). It was on this day in Crystal Chronicles that they have collected their second drop of myrrh and Rikana defeated the giant malboro after Serina weakened it quite a bit.

-------------------

I apologize for taking so long to update! School work and stuff really got in the way. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Will Rikana forgive Garnos for ruining her chocobo dolly? Will her dolly every be repaired to its former glory? Will everyone come home in one piece, or will someone by MYSTERIOUSLY cough cough murdered? Please review and I might update more faster!


	7. New Friends at Jegon River

Adventures of the Clavats and Selikes and Stuff

Chapter 7: New Friends at the Jegon River

"I say we continue up the road to that funny looking place!!"

"Let's not go and say we did!!"

"What the crap-"

"I wanna go to the river!! Let's go to the river!!!

"No way, fish boy, I don't want to go all the way down there just to catch some smelly fish!"

"But fishies are yummy! ...And there could be a myrrh tree around there!"

"They are not yummy!! They smell horrid and look absolutely digusting with their slimy scales and bulging eyes! No way is a precious myrrh tree gonna be around THAT smelly place!" 

"GASP, don't talk about Kitty like that!!"

"What the- who the crap is Kitty??"

"My pet catfish! Don't you ever talk about her kind like that!! She will claw you to death!"

"But she doesn't have claws! She's not even a cat!! And how do you know it's a she?"

"...She will certainly do something to you to death. I know it's a she 'cuz I checked!"

"..."

"...I still say we should go to the river!!!"

Silvon sighed deeply and put his head in his hands. His head was beginning to ache from the retards outside the wagon, arguing to where they should go look for myrrh next. Garnos was all about going to the river, perhaps in the hopes of finding another giant crab to cook into crabby patties. They had lost some of the crab meat to spoilage, and with Garnos' huge appetite, the crab meat was going fast. Rikana, however, wanted to explore the strange looking place she had spotted up ahead. He had scouted ahead with her and saw it was some kind of mine going underground, though going by the spider webs and dusty rail tracks, it was abandoned. He had returned and insisted on resting in Marr's Pass, as he didn't like the looks of the mine and could almost smell danger lurking within. Serina was laying on some blankets, her head smothered between two pillows.

Silvon rubbed his temples, trying to think through the noise the two were making outside. If they went to the abandoned mine, they might find the myrrh tree there, plus a horde of monsters. The monster part was beginning to not bother Silvon anymore, as it seemed where there are monsters, there are myrrh trees. It made sense also that the monsters would gather around myrrh trees, as they must know by now people flock to them to get myrrh for the crystals keeping them alive. The monsters would wait there for any poor unprepared traveler coming along to eat. But if they did go to the mines, he just knew they would run out of food and would have nothing to eat in the mines. They would slowly starve to death like that. If they went to the river, they would be able to stock up on food, but that meant they wouldn't get home as soon. He just really wanted to get home to end the madness he had to put up with everyday!

So he then decided what to do next.

"Nyah nyah nyah blah blah blah bloo blah!!!"

"What the crap are you saying???"

"Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!"

"Oh my freaking-"

"Blah blahblah blarrgh bla-"

Silvon tackled Garnos, who was so mad he couldn't speak clearly anymore and was simply making stupid noises. Stuffing his face in the dirt to shut him up, Silvon looked up at Rikana.

"I have decided where to go, and we are going to the Jegon River." Rikana exploded at that, and Garnos gave a muffled cheer.

"WHY ARE YOU TAKING SIDES WITH THAT IDIOT?? HE KNOWS THERE ISN'T A MYRRH TREE THERE, HE JUST WANTS TO STUFF HIS FACE AND BLAH BLAH BLAH-"

"**SHUT UP!!**"

Rikana promptly fell silent. Garnos was still making happy noises in the dirt. Silvon ignored him and glared at her dangerously.

"We are going to the river to fill Garnos up on fish, then we will go to the mines. As much as I want to just go to the mines right now and get the myrrh so we can just go home, I want to at least reach home alive and not starve to death. In order to do that, we need to restock on food. Got it?"

Rikana looked as though she was going to protest, then closed her mouth and just nodded. Silvon sighed with relief and let Garnos up, who began dancing around, whooping with joy.

"What are we all waiting for?? Let's get going!"

He danced off in the direction of the river. Silvon and Rikana moved to either side of Bobo, and they moved off after the dancing Garnos.

--------------------

When the caravan caught up with Garnos, he was staring intently at a sign next to the dirt road. They could see the waters of the river shining ahead. He looked over to Silvon.

"Hey, Silvon!! What does this say?" Silvon, sighing in disbelief that Garnos could not read, walked over and looked at the sign.

"It reads, '_Right: Ironmine Downs, Left: Pier_'."

"Hey, what's a pier??"

"It's the wooden thingy people build from the land into the water to dock their ships, I think."

"Water?? We must be near the river!!"

"...Yes Garnos, we are near the water."

"Let's hurry up and get there then!!!" Garnos sprinted away, although the river was only 20 feet away. He jumped in, but, not expecting it to be so cold and deep, began to drown.

"Glub gargle gasp, HELP ME SOMEBODY, glub glub, I AM DROWNING!!!!" Garnos yelled, choking on the water. Rikana slapped her forehead and Silvon sighed deeply, rubbing his temples. Serina, however, jumped off the wagon to Garnos' cries, and, seeing him in the water, jumped in after him.

"Hang on Garnos, I will save you!!!" Serina jumped in, but she wasn't expecting it to be cold and deep either, so now they were both drowning.

"Glub glub gasp, HELP US SOMEBODY, WE ARE BOTH DROWNING!!" The two idiots cried, splashing about in the water.

Silvon began to run forward when a tall figure appeared out of nowhere.

"Hold fast, young Selkie, I shall help thy shads," It said and moved towards the two drowning Clavats. It reached out with its long arms and pull the two to shore. They coughed and gacked as though they nearly died, although they were in the river for not even two minutes. Silvon peered at it carefully; it did not seem to be human, as it was taller than any of them, had long, striped brown furry arms, was dressed differently, and had a longish neck with an odd head concealed in a bronze helmet, the visor protruding to a point like a beak. A pair of small bat-like wings protruded from its shoulder blades. It turned to Silvon.

"Thy shads will be fine, despite that they attied to peet the river in one go," it said to Silvon.

"Um, thank you very much, and forgive me for my ignorance, but what_ are_ you?" Silvon replied as respectfully as he could, though he was bit taken aback by the newcomer. Did it just call Garnos and Serina 'shads'? And what did it mean by 'peet'??

"I am a Yuke, young Selkie. Thou may call me Yvez, and the pinty razzed veck over by the wetwood is Budelto." Silvon looked over and saw a Lilty standing by the pier. The Lilty didn't look too happy.

"Uhh, nice to meet you, uhh...Yvez. I am Silvon, the two Clavats are Garnos and Serina, and the mean looking Selkie over by the wagon is Rikana." What the crap?? 'Pinty razzed veck'??? 'Wetwood'?? Was this Yuke sick in the mind??

"Mmmmm, young Rikana may be loftum shads with Budelto...or grat enemies," the Yuke replied thoughtfully, looking at Rikana. "I hope 'tis the former that is true, and not the latter."

"Duhhh...yea! Me too..." Silvon replied stupidly, barely understanding what the Yuke was saying. Did all Yukes talk this way? The Yuke sighed.

"If thee hast come to see the glidewooder, I fear thou will be disappointed. He is not present for reasons unknown to this one."

"Glidewooder...?" Silvon thought his head was going to explode.

"Yes, the glidewooder, the one who takes people across the Jegon Wet to the other side for some jingles," Yvez replied impatiently. "Budelto wishes to go back to his home land, the Fields of Fum, but he cannot cross the wet without the glidewooder, nor a gliderwood."

"Oh...so the glidewooder must be the ferryman...and the glidewood is a ship or a boat or something...uh, right, uh, we only came to fish awhile before going into some creepy mine to find a myrrh tree."

"Oh! So thou art a crystaler? And thou plans to go into the Mines of Cathuriges?"

"Mines of Whodidwhat?" Yvez seemed to be getting irritated by Silvon's stupidity. It wasn't Silvon's fault; the Yuke is talking all funny and weird and stuff!

"We shall sprak of this later, I must calm my razzed shad down before he chucks himself into yonder slip." Yvez turned from the bewildered Selkie and walked over to the Lilty he called Budelto. Silvon stood there, scratching his head, then decided to get done what he had come to get done.

Silvon just stood there.

...And he decided to get done what he had come to get done.

Silvon continued to stand there, irritating the narrator to no end.

-_Come on, get on with it!! Let's move the story along now!_

Silvon looked unhappily at the sky.

"That funny-talking Yuke made me forget why we are here."

Here the narrator sighed and slumped on the table, yet was still somehow able to continue typing the story. Garnos laid back and made a dust angel in the dirt, and Serina propped herself on her arms, staring up at the clouds in the sky. Rikana leaned against the wagon and crossed her arms, and Silvon felt as though he was going crazy. After watching Silvon suffer a bit, Rikana finally spoke up.

"Didn't we come here to fish awhile?"

Silvon sighed and rub his eyes. "Yes, yes we did. Rikana, please get out the fishing nets and poles and take over for a bit. I need to go rest my poor head." Rikana, hearing she had the power of a leader now in her hands, eagerly jumped to the task, dumping a giant net on Garnos and stuffed some jars into Serina's hands.

"Serina, you go dig up some worms, Garnos go spread that net out so we can fix it with some bait, and I will stand over here and do absolutely nothing. Get to it!" Serina grumbled and went off to her task, while Garnos whimpered as he tried to fight free of the net. Rikana stood there a while, watching Garnos getting more and more entangled in the net, then walked over and shook him loose into the river. Garnos began to think he was drowning again, so Rikana had to throw the net over him and pull him in again, but he got tangled again, so she shook him loose into the river again. This went on for a while, before Silvon came over and shook him loose on the grass; he then went into the wagon to take a much-needed nap.

When Serina had finally got some bait, the net and the poles were set, they began fishing. They dug the poles upright into the ground and supported them with rocks. Serina was left to watch the poles to reel in any fish biting, and Rikana relunctantly brought Garnos along to cast out the net. She straddled a log which served as a makeshift boat with Garnos in front of her, and they cast the net in the river. She sort of steered the log with a wooden plank, and let the slow current of the river carry them along. To her delight, she saw the shadows of many fish cluster around the net. So did Garnos.

"FISHY!!!" Splash!

"Garnos-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING???" Rikana shouted as Garnos dropped into the water and was grabbing at the slippery fish. The fish immediately cleared off. Rikana was livid.

"YOU IDIOT, GET BACK ON THE LOG!! YOU SCARED ALL THE FISH AWAY!!" Garnos, however, could not hear her. He was beginning to drown again. Rikana began banging her forehead against the log in pure fustration. Flailing about, Garnos somehow grabbed a hold on the log and, when trying to pull himself back up, flipped the log over and sent Rikana in the water with him.

"Glub glub glub- WHAT THE CRAP-glub glub-" Rikana floundered about in the water, then found she was now floating on her back, her fatness of a hair serving as a floating device.

"I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!!!" She screeched as she slowly floated away from the drowning Garnos.

"Help -glub cough choke- help somebody!" Garnos cried weakly, struggling to keep his head out of the water. Because he eats so much and is such a pig, he was sinking rapidly.

"Garr, ya idiot!! Do ya hafta make so much noise???" The Lilty Budelto splashed into the shallows, hefting his big halberd-like spear over his head. He thrust it into the water carelessly, hitting Garnos in the head in the process.

"Owie -glubble glub-!" Garnos flailed about for a moment, seeing stars and swallowing water, but as the spear butt brushed against his fingers he grabbed on and held on for dear life as Budelto pulled him out of the water. Garnos coughed and coughed and snorted and coughed some more while Budelto patted him none too gently on the back.

"Here now, trying tah swallow da entire river in one go, ya? That's it, cough it all up, at least you saved some water for da fishies." Garnos looked up to see the Lilty's...uh...bucket head. Budelto was wearing like a helmet a large, dark gray bucket, which he lifted a little to survey Garnos with dark violet eyes. He was wearing a dark blue suit with iron gauntlets, boots, chest and thigh armor, and stiped sock. A tuft of his strange orange and red hair poked out the top of his bucket helmet.

"Where's -cough- Rikana?" Garnos asked. Budelto pointed further down the river, where you could see Yvez pulling Rikana back to land with one long furry arm.

"It looks like ya fellers aren't having much luck wid fishing, 'specially da pretty lady yonder." Garnos jerked around to see Serina was gamely hanging onto a fishing rod and was being slowly dragged towards the river by a large shadow in the water. "I think I should help ya fellers before ya go and drown yahselfs." Budelto ran over to Serina and cut the string. Serina pitched face foward into the muddy bank and the large shadow disappeared into the depths of the river. He then led her to a more shallow part of the river where she wouldn't attract any large dangerous fish.

They spent the rest of the day at the river side, fishing and relaxing. Budelto taught them a great deal, showing them how to net fish properly and where to find abundant shoals of them. When night fell, they pulled in their fishing equipment and gathered around a campfire. The smell of roasting fish soon filled the air.

"So, tell me more about yourselves. What are you two doing out here? You don't seem to be part of a caravan," Silvon said, taking a big bite out of his roasted fish. Budelto, who had removed his bucket helmet and set it beside him, exchanged glances with Yvez.

"Eh, we've just been roaming da countryside, helping out fellers like yaself in need, ya," Budelto replied airily, waving his fish around. Yvez nodded mutely, his fish untouched. Silvon frowned; they were hiding something. He set his fish aside.

"Come on, surely there is more to it than that? I mean, how did you guys meet? Do you both live in the Fields of Fum?" Silvon inquired. Yvez remained stone-still, and Budelto shifted uneasily. Silvon stared at him, then Yvez, noticing Yvez's untouched fish. "Aren't you going to eat that?"

"Eh, oh, Yvez will eat alright. He just doesn't take his helmet off in front of fellers. Here Yvez, take ya fish and eat it behind yonder wagon." Yvez obediantly rose with his fish and disappeared silently behind the wagon. "Anyway, more 'bout us? I was part of a caravan alright. A great spankin' failure of a caravan tah be exact, ya." Budelto's face grew grim, and he stared into the fire. The others unconsciously stopped eating and were watching him intently. Budelto sighed.

"We was doing great for several years, finding and getting myrrh was no problem for mah caravan, ya. Dere were two others, a Clavat and a Selkie. Real warriors, we was. Da Clavat was a berserker wid his sword, none matched his skill, a big dope he was though, and da Selkie was a genius of ranged attacks, he could hit anything from any distance. He was rather merciless too. Dey were on the aged side, but dey fought like young devils, ya. Dey was not from da Fields of Fum, anyone could see dat, but dey never really told me or anyone else where dey came from. Still, we welcomed dem, dey were invaluable additions tah our village. Den it happened...

"We was hot on da trail of another myrrh trees, our last drop too, when da Selkie sensed an ambush ahead. He said he'd go take a good look, so we waited on him. And waited. And waited. And waited. Now for dis Selkie, he shoulda been back long ago, but dere was not a hair of him tah be seen. Soz we goes and looks for him, and after long searching and tracking we finally finds him. We find him standing and talking with another Selkie, a pretty blonde gal, or at least we thought dey were talking. Dey were just kinda standing there staring at each other. Da lad asked da gal something, and from what da gal replied, it just shocked da lad. Den alluva sudden, three Clavats come runnin' yellin' something about being late tah someplace tah help somebody. Da gal took one last look at da other and ran off with da Clavats, and da poor lad, just stood dere staring. Didn't recover fast enough to avoid da swarms of goblins jumping in."

Silvon inhaled sharply, Garnos stared with big eyes, Serina clutched Silvon's arm, and Rikana stared intently. Budelto heaved a shaky sigh.

"I didn't understand den, and I still don't understand now. It almost seemed da goblins were waitin' for the gal and her buds to leave before jumping in on our poor comrade. Anyway, mah Clavat bud and I quickly ran in and tried to save our comrade. But dere were too many stinkin' goblins! More and more were pourin' in as we killed and killed. Went on for hours, da Selkie managed to hold off on his own, but he was takin' hits and you can't fight too well with wounds all over ya body. Da Clavat went absolutely insane when da Selkie finally went down. Gore and goblin bits were flyin' everywhere! But dey kept on coming!! I got separated from da Clavat, and I fought like mad to keep dem goblins away. But one sneaky bastard got up behind me and hit da back of mah head hard. I was still conscious and all dat, so I tried to fight dem off still as dey started stabbing away at me. I was certain I was gonna die, and was pretty sure da Clavat went down wid his mate as I didn't hear him fighting anymore. Den dere was a HUGE explosion alluva sudden to mah left! Goblins were flying everywhere, and da others turned to dis new attacker. It was another Selkie, a haunting beauty at dat. She had dark hair, unusual for da Selkie race, and ice-blue eyes dat pierced through everything dey looked at. Da goblins tried tah rush her, but she simply blew dem all away wid another explosive missile.

"Den tah mah right, I hear more screaming. A Clavat wid dark brown hair and dese brown eyes...so strange...dey were da nicest you'd ever see, yet dey seem tah challenge ya, and took in ya every move wid cold and accurate calculation. She wielded a great sword and chopped dose goblins to bits. She wore white and red, wid a red and white cap and all. She seemed tah match mah buddy Clavat wid her sword skill, if not better! Den dey were cutting dem goblins down, da Selkie blasting dem to bits and da Clavat chopping dem up. Soon da goblins saw dey couldn't win against dem through sheer numbers and began retreating screaming like banshees. Da Selkie ran after dem, determined to kill dem all, blasting away wid extremely powerful magic, magic at a level I've never seen before! Da Clavat came up tah me, and everything went black.

"When I awoke again, all da Clavats and Selkies and stuff were gone, and I found myself wid Yvez. Yvez said he would help me get back tah mah homeland and be mah traveling partner. When I asked where everyone gone, he didn't say. Dat was da last time I saw any of dose fellers. Since den, I've been traveling wid Yvez."

Everyone stared silently; Yvez had finished his fish and quietly sat next to Budelto and listened to the rest of his narrative. Rikana got especially interested in the part with the Selkie blasting the goblins to bits, and began to inquire Budelto more of that person. But Budelto raised a weary hand and silenced her.

"Dat's enough of dem fellers, I'm exhausted." Budelto laid back as Yvez stepped forward.

"Me thinks it is time to close thy glazzies, the lunar ball is high and 'tis dark. Budelto and I shalt toot out here." Yvez waved them away. Silvon and his caravan climbed into the wagon and settled down to sleep. An eerie silence fell over the camp, and Silvon stared at the ceiling of the wagon, turning all that he learned in his head. Who were these people, the Clavat and the Selkie? And the others that appeared and mysteriously disappeared as well? And the two juggernauts? The two powerful female warriors? Too many random people are showing up, he decided. He froze in place suddenly and pricked his ears. After a long silent while he relaxed again. Funny, he thought he heard whispering outside the wagon. He dismissed the thought; it was probably between Budelto and Yvez. He drifted off in uneasy sleep.

When the sun rose again, they prepared to leave for the Mine mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. After some consulting, Budelto and Yvez asked to join them, and Silvon gladly added them to their caravan; they will need all the help they can get, and maybe they can help Budelto get myrrh for his village. Saddling up Bobo, they trecked off to the Mine. Tired from troubled sleep, Silvon failed to notice the excess amount of unfamiliar tracks around the campsite.

The tracks of a Selkie and a Clavat.

--------------------

Some time in the late morning, they reached the mine. Garnos peeked at the dark hole leading deep down into the earth, squeaked with fright and dove under some blankets. The others silently stared into the dark entrance, to their doom? To the continued existence of their village? The only way to find out was to enter the place. Budelto laid a gauntleted hand on Silvon's shoulder.

"Ready to go in, bud?"

Silvon looked back at Budelto's bucket helmeted head. He looked again at the forbidding mine entrance, and nodded.

"Let's do this thing."

--------------------

Again, sorry for taking so long to update. It required a lot of work and brainpower to add the element of mystery and make sure it gelled together with what is going to happen next and that it would make sense. Also, customizing and getting Yvez and Budelto's speech right took some time too. Enjoy! I'll be sure to try to type the next chapter faster!


	8. Special Chapter: Quiz time!

Special Chapter!!

_**Which **__**Adventures of the Clavats and Selkies and Stuff**__** character are you most like? quiz**_

This is a simple quiz I decided to make up for fun. Let's see which character of my fanfic you act like most! Choose only 1 answer of each question that best applies to you. How to check your score I will explain at the end. **In order to be able to score, you must record the letter of your answer you choose for each question. You may choose only ****one**** answer per question.**

In this quiz, you get to see

Let's begin!

--------------------

**#1. What is your favorite color? (What is a quiz without this question?)**

a) Silver, blue, or silver-blue

b) Green

c) Steel or dark gray

d) Red

e) Yellow

f) Other

g) Purple and/or gold

**#2. Your weapon of choice?**

a) Big swords to chop them up with!

b) Magic! Other than that I don't fight.

c) Long-ranged weapons

d) Anything as long as I can wield a shield

e) Magic. It's my forte.

f) I favor both long and short-ranged weapons

g) Any melee weapon as long as it has long reach, none of those tiny swords now.

**#3. What qualities do you think a leader should have?**

a) Someone who can keep their caravan alive and doesn't lead them into ambushes, takes it slow and careful...then goes absolutely insane!!

b) Quiet authority, cool head, and the ability to materialize out of nowhere and freak everyone out.

c) Kindess and consideration.

d) Intelligence and strategy.

e) Big muscles and insane super strength!

f) Experience and tactics

g) I have all the qualities for a leader.

**#4. You're surrounded by monsters! What do you do?**

a) Save myself, taking care of the others is too much of a hassle

b) Go berserk and take on the enemy, jumping in and wiping out large groups at a time

c) Try to regroup the caravan and get everybody out alive

d) Monsters can't hurt me!

e) Fight it out, helping those who need it most

f) Panic! Swing weapon around wildly and hope I hit something

g) Get back to back with someone and blast the enemy with magic

**#5. What do the others think of you?**

a) They are always yellin' at me and stuff for some reason...

b) They see me as the chalice holder

c) I think they are either scared or annoyed with me...Whatever I don't care.

d) They find me hot-headed at times, but they respect my fighting skills

e) I am kind and considerate

f) They don't know what to think of me...I am a bit of an enigma

g) They are fairly neutral, but when we are in danger, they look to me for guidance

**#6. What do you value most in life, or what is important to you?**

a) Money and wealth

b) Most of what is important to me has been taken away; I cling now to all that is left

c) Food!

d) The well-being of others

e) Sleep...

f) That is for me to know and you to find out

g) Friends and family

**#7. Someone is in danger of dying. What do you do?**

a) Cast cure on that person. Duh!

b) Heal him/her and stay by his/her side until he/she has fully recovered

c) Stand helplessly by and watch that person die...

d) That person's not dying, he/she's just sleepy! Oh wait...Panic!!

e) Start digging his/her grave

f) See if you can do anything to help

g) Do absolutely ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to save that person, even if it kills me!

**#8. You see someone getting mugged; what do you do?**

a) Get some help

b) Try to be Superman and save the person...I would probably just end up getting mugged too.

c) Help the person and give the mugger a sound beating

d) Drive off the mugger, then take the person's money

e) Kill the mugger right there and then

f) Quietly ask the mugger to stop and leave, and if he doesn't listen, take his life swiftly with a powerful spell

g) What mugger? (There is a pulpy, bloody mass of what used to be the mugger on the ground)

-------------------

Ok! This is how scoring works. Above each character's name in the results you will see a sequence of letters like the following:

**a, f, d, c, g, g, f, c**

Example: I have the sequence **a, f, f, e, g, g, f, c**

and the sequence for Silvon is **a, f, d, c, g, g, f, c**

Can you see the matches? I have 6 out of 8 matches with Silvon, more than what I can have with any of the others, which means I am most like Silvon!

Here are the characters:

**a, f, d, c, g, g, f, c**

You are most like Silvon Maatkul!

A black sheep among white sheep, Silvon is different from the other Selkies in general due to his more gentle, considerate and generous nature. He is sensible and cool-headed, a natural leader. He values friends and family, will do all that he can to help someone in danger and try to get everyone out alive. He is strategic in his fighting ways, well-balanced in both long-ranged attacks as well as close combat. He is the oldest in the caravan.

His colors; silver, blue, or silver-blue.

Eye color: blue

Hair color: Silver

Born on the 5th day of the 2nd month of winter (January 5th)

Sign: Capricorn

Age: 16

Type - Bandanna Selkie

**b, c, g, a, c, a, e, d**

You are most like Rikana Keleimee!

A true Selkie, Rikana is selfish, thinks only of herself, and will not do anything for anyone else unless there is money to be gained and it would benefit her. She is dark, quiet, and bad-tempered. She treasures wealth over anything else, and does not like to work as a team much, as she feels everyone else on the 'team' is a burden to her and are just slowing her down from reaching her goals of hitting it rich. When it comes to choosing a leader, she for some reason believes that she is the ideal leader, although she wil ditch her team in the face of a hopeless situation without hesitation. She favors long-ranged attacks, though in her rages, she enjoys getting up close to her victims and watching the terror on their faces as she elminates them. She is a backstabber in nature, suitable for the assassin's ways in that she prefers sneak attacks over open warfare, and is quick to disappear when it gets too hot, only to reappear behind the enemy and stab them in the back.

Her colors; poison green (maybe black)

Eye color: green

Hair color: blue-ish silver

Born on the 13th day in the 2nd month of spring (April 13th)

Sign: Aries

Age: 15

Type - Wolfie Selkie

**d, a, e, f, a, c, d, b**

You are most like Garnos Ronstie!

An absent-minded Clavat, Garnos is the idiot of the caravan. With a bottomless stomach and his knack of finding trouble anywhere and everywhere, he is a constant source of amusement and in some cases, extreme irritation and major headaches. He enjoys eating more than anything else, and is often in his own happy little world in his head in which he often changes things he sees to how he sees fit. In his mind, that bloody person isn't dead, he's just sleeping! This often leads him to interpret everything wrong and make stupid decisions. He does know, however, when he is in big trouble and danger of being seriously hurt, and easily panics in times like these. However, he can be touchy, and when enraged, which is next to impossible to do, he can be extremely dangerous and destructive. He likes big swords, though he doesn't know how to properly handle them, and, unless he's mad, is completely useless in battles.

His color; red

Eye color: Reddish brown, the red being more pronounced when he's mad, the brown more pronounced when he's happy or sad

Hair color: Dark brown

Born on the 3rd day of the 3rd month of spring. (May 3rd)

Sign: Taurus

Age: 15

Type - Natural Clavat

**e, d, c, e, e, d, a, g**

You are most like Serina Hexoblah!

A kind, gentl soul (unless she sees anyone getting attacked by muggers and/or monsters), Serina is for the most part the nicest person you will know. Get on her bad side, and you won't have time to regret it; you'll be dead before you know it! Healing magic is a gift that comes naturally to Serina; she can cure any type of injury or illness easily. However, losses (like how Bobo ran away) effects her most, and she will cry over almost anything. If she can't cure you, she'll die trying to help you in some way. She will fight long-ranged or in close quarters as long as she has her trusty shield, though she seems to excell in close combat, where she puts her blade to deadly use. She is the warrior of the caravan, preferring to run into the arms of the enemy, taking them by surprise if possible and often aims to decapitate them. She is not one to retreat, but fight to the death. She is the youngest in the caravan.

Her color; yellow

Eye and hair color: golden-brown

Born on the 21st day of the 2nd month of summer. (July 1st)

Sign: Cancer

Age: 14 1/2

Type - Long-haired Clavat

**f, b, f, d, b, e, c, a**

You are most like Hamithonean Arcitonutarmos Makilocomwa! (A.K.A. Ham)

Due to his small size, Ham isn't much help when it comes to physical stuff (except for carrying the chalice), but he has incredible magic powers, is good at looking cute and fluffy, has some experience with traveling and monsters, and is the ideal furry football to kick to relieve stress. Ham is extremely lazy and stuff, and almost never loses his cool. He is all about experience and tactical stuff when it comes to fighting, and, despite how lazy he is, he will sometimes use his magic against the enemy (only if he really feels like it though). Because monsters can't really hurt him (unless the narrator changes that) adds to how lazy he is in combat, though he will try to avoid physical pain when possible, and a small kick will get him to do your bidding. Because of how close to uselessness in battle he can be, the caravan often makes him carry the chalice; he does not seem to mind, because he does not have to fight while carrying it. Also because of his lazy nature, he will do absolutely nothing even when someone in front of him is dying, and he loves to sleep. He's not cold-hearted or anything; he's just too damn lazy to give a damn!

His color; ?

Fur color: white with light brown ear-tips and facial markings, red pom-pom and nose, and purple wings.

Eye color: ...unknown as he never seems to have his eyes open

Birth date unknown.

Sign?

Age?

Type: Moogle without clothes

**c, g, a, b, d, b, g, e**

You are most like Budelto Swifthally!

One of the two travelers Silvon's caravan happened upon, Budelto seems to have gone through a lot of pain and losses and keeps dark secrets and his pain to himself in his own subtle way. More talkative than his companion (a LOT more at times), Budelto enjoys arguing day and night with anyone and if possible anything. That crazy Lilty would argue with his own echo if the others didn't stop him! He can get hot-headed and excessively fierce in the heat of battle, and is the most reckless fighter Silvon's caravan has ever seen. Skilled with his halberd (or spear), he can stab enemies from afar or close up, and is, now a new addition to the caravan along with Yvez, the muscle of the caravan. He may not have perfect speech and came from a 'hill-billy' town, but he is not to be underestimated. Despite his rough nature and hot temper, he cares about his new friends a lot and will do anything to protect them, especially having two of his closest friends die before him.

His color; gray or steel, gray colors

Eye color: dark violet

Hair color: reddish-orange and yellow

Birth date unknown.

Sign?

Age: 37

Type - Bucket head Lilty

**g, e, b, g, f, f, b, f**

You are most like Yvez!

Yvez is the strangest character you'll probably meet in this story, strange in appearance, speech, and habits. He is very hard to understand, as he substitutes many words with different, made-up ones (like 'shad' means friend and 'veck' means man or a male mature person in general) and includes all these 'thee' and 'thou' and 'thy' stuff. Add to that the fact that he doesn't speak very much, and you got a character that you know absolutely nothing about. He is very quiet as he moves around as well, so he often freaks out people by seemingly appearing out of nowhere when he simply walked up next to them without making a sound or his prescence felt. As it is with all Yukes, he is a master in magic, and attacks almost completely with only magic. If the enemy is too close to throw a fire ball at, though, he will throw in a punch or a kick, maybe stab them with the beak of his bronze helmet. Adding to his air of mystery, you never get to see his face, or him eat for that matter, and you can never find him sleeping; he seems to be always awake. He never opens up to anybody, and when he speaks, it's to warn you of danger, reassure you on a tense situation, or point out that your pant leg is on fire.

His color; purple and/or gold

Eye color?

Hair color: Do Yukes have hair under the helmet?

Fur color: brown upper arms, sandy lower arms, brown and sand striped hands and legs

Birth date unknown.

Sign?

Age?

Type - Long-beaked Yuke

Thanks for taking the quiz, hope you enjoyed it! I'll be updating soon.


End file.
